Cryptography in a very small nutshell

Cryptography is perhaps the single most important “enabler” of Information Security and Privacy; it is also perhaps the least understood and misused. The main source of confusion likely stems from the many encryption methods and options which are available. Another contributing factor may be that the teams selecting and implementing solutions which require encryption feel that they need to fully understand the deep inner-workings of the cryptosystem. In general, most cryptographic systems can be treated as a “black box” within project scenarios.

Similarly, an exhaustive discussion of the myriad encryption methods, protocols, and options is outside the scope of this paper. Instead, this paper will outline the three main types of cryptography: symmetric, asymmetric, and one-way hashing.