Cryptology, also known as cryptography, is the study and practice of using ciphers and other means to create a coded message. Cryptology has been used in a number of different situations over the years, even going as far back as medieval times and earlier. There are many different types of coded messages; while some attempt to conceal the meaning of the message, other methods conceal the entire message itself. Read on to learn more about cryptology through the ages.

Cryptology Overview

The word “cryptology” is originally derived from Greek; kryptos translates as “hidden”, while logos stands for “words”. Cryptology can be viewed as both an art as well as a science. It often makes use of a cipher or code, or even both in some cases. A code is typically a pre-defined substitution of the alphabet. Thus, a coded message would require the original code to reveal the hidden message. On the other hand, a cipher relies on a keyword in order to begin the process of deciphering a message. Cryptography is primarily used to hide the essence of a message from others as well as to guard the safety of the data.

History of Cryptology

Some of the most ancient types of cryptography date back to 1900 BC, used in cultures such as the ancient Egyptians, Greeks and Mesopotamians. In those times, cryptography was used to code various texts from valuable recipes to military messages. Later on, the Romans developed the Caesar Shift Cipher, which worked by shifting the letters of the alphabet. For example, if the entire alphabet was shifted by one letter, then in a coded message, B would stand for A, C would stand for B and so on. This method is known as a monoalphabetic substitution. Most of these early types of coding were rather rudimentary and were easily solved. By the Middle Ages, more sophisticated types of cryptography were created, involving rotating discs and other devices that involved polyalphabetic substituion. By the early 1900s, the one time pad was created, which uses a single keyword to crack the entire coded message.

Modern Cryptography

Compared to older forms of cryptography, modern versions have advanced tremendously thanks to recent improvements in technology and computing power. Today’s computers can randomly generate encrypted messages and texts based on high-level algorithms. The complexity and randomness makes it virtually impossible to break the code without knowing exactly the correct encryption key. In today’s world, cryptology is all around us. Encryption is not only used in the military, but also in corporate circles where product details and strategies need to be kept safely guarded from competitors. Once of the main areas that use encryption tools are financial institutions and other organizations that deal with highly sensitive matter. Even your email and social media accounts use encryption techniques to ensure the safety of their customers’ passwords and account data. Cryptography is a lot more prominent today mostly because of the advent of the Internet. Compared to previous decades, the average person now has a wealth of private information, files and communications stored online. In order to keep all of this information from being abused by third parties, strong and reliable encryption technology is vital. Today the field of cryptography and encryption has turned into an exceedingly large industry. It is employed by just about every type of establishment that is involved in online transactions, communications and data storage.