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Definitions
From CryptoDox, The Online Encyclopedia on Cryptography and Information Security
- Access Control
- Restricting information to those authorized for such access.
- Ciphertext
- The encrypted message. The plaintext is converted to ciphertext during the process of encryption and vice-versa during decryption.
- Cryptography
- Greek for "hidden writing." It is the art and science of transforming information into a secure form
- Decryption
- Extracting information hidden by the process of encryption.
- Encryption
- Hiding information in secret code.
- Plaintext
- The original message that needs to be encrypted. This is the message that has some value and should not be transmitted or stored as-is. (Sometimes referred to as cleartext)
- Privacy
- Seclusion. Not being intruded upon. Information belonging to the individual, and not society at large.
- Pseudorandom
- These appear to be truly random in nature but are not. Used extensively in cryptography.
- Random
- An unpredictable pattern. Pesudorandom numbers are used extensively in cryptography.
- Trust
- Trust is the basis for communications secrecy: While secrecy can involve keeping one's own secrets, communications security almost inevitably involves at least a second party and the equipment itself. We thus necessarily "trust" that party with the secret, as well as cryptographic keys. It makes little sense to talk about secrecy in the absence of trust.
External References
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