Basic Cryptography

These flashcards cover key concepts and terminology related to basic cryptography as presented in the lecture notes.

Cryptography

The practice of scrambling data so it cannot be read or understood.

Steganography

The technique of hiding the existence of data.

Encryption

The process of changing original text into a secret message using cryptography.

Decryption

The process of changing a secret message back to its original form.

Plaintext

Unencrypted data that is to be encrypted or the output of decryption.

Ciphertext

The scrambled and unreadable output of encryption.

Cipher

A cryptographic algorithm that transforms plaintext data into ciphertext.

Kerckhoff’s Principle

The principle stating that only the key, not the algorithm, should be secret.

Caesar Cipher

An oldest keyed substitution algorithm using a fixed shift in the alphabet.

Vigenère Cipher

An algorithm that uses a password as a key instead of a number.

Rail Fence Cipher

A simple transposition algorithm placing letters into a zig-zag pattern.

Hash Algorithms

Algorithms that take a set of data as input and return a fixed-size output.

Symmetric Cryptographic Algorithms

Algorithms that use the same key for both encryption and decryption.

Asymmetric Cryptographic Algorithms

Algorithms that use a pair of keys (public and private) for encryption and decryption.

Digital Signature Algorithm (DSA)

An algorithm used to create a digital signature for verifying the sender.

Diffie-Hellman

A key exchange method allowing two parties to agree on a common secret key.

Confidentiality

Ensuring that only authorized parties can view certain data.

Integrity

Ensuring that information is correct and unaltered.

Nonrepudiation

The inability to deny performing an action.