GRYPTOGRAPHY
Tags: programming, security, design, algorithms
Published: 2023-03-27 06:06:52

**Introduction**
Institutions, companies, the government and even individuals spent so much time, resources and money to protect their data from attackers and from being accessed by unauthorized persons which could use it for malicious purposes or alter it before it reaches its final destination. This is because as the internet continue to grow, communication and information sharing becomes very efficient and easy likewise so much data is continuously transmitted over the internet where there is little or no security hence can easily be accessed by attackers and hackers. Therefore protecting data being stored or transmitted over the internet has become a major priority for many. In this article we would take a look at cryptography, a  method to ensure digital security, cryptanalysis, an attempt by hackers which study techniques used to break security systems and cryptology, the science that study network security
**What is cryptography**
It was the formation of the first computer network that started people thinking about the importance of securing data.  This is because there was communication between computers over the open internet, that sort of network was transformative in many great ways but also made it trivially easy to access data travelling across the internet by hackers and financial services being an early use case for computers, it was very necessary to keep information transmitted over the internet secret. Due to the need to secure data transmitted over the internet, network security experts made use of cryptograghy.Gryptography comes from two word **grypto** a greek word that means **hidden**  or **secret** and **graphy** which means **writing**. Hence cryptography is the art of secret writing. It is a method used in protecting information and communications through the use of codes, so that information sent is read and processed by the only the intended recipients. The use of codes is to make this information seem meaningless to unauthorized persons.
**The process of cryptography**
Providing security using cryptography involves the design and development of algorithms or a series of mathematical operations alongside keys which are then used on a readable message called plaintext(original information to be transmitted or stored) which converts it to an unreadable form called ciphertext (information that is been coded). A key is just another piece of information almost always a number that specifies how the algorithm is applied to the plaintext in order to encrypt it. This process involves two main activities: encryption and decryption. Encryption simply means making secret , therefore encryption is an integral part of cryptography. The algorithm generated along side the key are used to encrypt the data to an unreadable form. A good cryptographic system is also ensured so as to effectively manage the algorithms and keys developed for encryption and decryption. The ciphertext can be read and processed by the intended recipients by following the same algorithm and the assigned key to obtain the plaintext. This process is called decryption. it should be noted that though the algorithm can be known but without the correct key, the decryption process is very difficult and sometimes impossible.
**Cryptanalysis**
Building strong algorithms and cryptographic systems is primarily aimed at protecting data from attackers, cryptanalysis is rather the study of ciphertext, ciphers and cryptosystems with the aim of understanding how they work, finding and improving techniques for defeating or weakening them with the objective to gain access to the contents of encrypted data, even if the cryptographic key is unknowned
Another approach by cryptanalyst is not the study of the algorithms used but they rather engage in the study of side channel attacks, which do not target weaknesses in the cryptographic algorithms but instead exploit weaknesses in their implementation
Cryptanalysis is practiced by a broad range of organizations, including government aiming to decipher other nation’s confidential communication; companies developing security products that employ cryptanalyst to test their security features; hackers, crackers, independent researchers and academicians who search for weaknesses in cryptographic protocols and algorithms. Hence cryptographic systems should be designed such that they don’t need to be secret in order to conceal information  While the objective of cryptanalysts is to find weaknesses in or otherwise defeat cryptographic algorithms, cryptanalyst research results are used by cryptographers to improve and strengthen or replace flawed algorithms. Both cryptanalysis, which is focused on deciphering  encrypted data and cryptography which is focused on creating and improving encrypted ciphers and other algorithms are aspects of cryptology, the mathematical study of codes, ciphers and related algorithms. 
We can therefore conclude that though cryptography is one method of securing data and information over network systems, it can never be one hundred percent efficient, either due to weaknesses in the underlying algorithms or weaknesses in it's implementation, therefore cryptographers are to continuously work hard in protecting, updating and creating new algorithms as need arises.