Cryptography is the process of transforming common plain language into unreadable text. It is a way of storing and sending data in a specific format so that it can only be read and processed by those who are supposed to receive and use it. Cryptography not just intends to safeguard data from unauthorized access or tampering, but it is also used to verify the identity the person who is accessing the data.
Interestingly, the name cryptography is derived from two Greek words, kryptos and graphein, which implies “hidden” and “writing,” respectively, in the English language. When early cryptography was developed, it was only concerned with turning communications into unreadable groupings of numbers in order to secure the message’s content while it was being transported from one location to another.
It has been around since we first emerged from our caves and began to live in groups when we made the decision to embrace the concept of this civilization literally. As soon as there were multiple groups or tribes, the belief when we had to compete against itself appeared and spread, along with rank brutality, secrecy, and crowd management, to name a few characteristics. It should come as no surprise that the oldest types of encryptions were discovered in the birthplace of civilization, which includes the territories today comprised of Egypt, Greece, and Rome, among others.
Indeed, the birth of Cryptography revolutionized communications and technology by offering data security, privacy, and integrity, ranging from secret dialogues inscribed on rocks to virtual certificates and hash algorithms. The article provides a brief overview of the historical development of crypto procedures and how they have evolved.
Conventional Cryptographic Applications
Hieroglyphics in Ancient Egypt
The first known examples of cryptographic methods date back 3900 years when non-standard hieroglyphs were used to encode messages. Egyptian Hieroglyphs were the official alphabets of Egyptian civilization, and they were utilized for written correspondence and communication between two parties. Pictograms with elaborate patterns and symbols were included in the package, too sometimes. A particular set of hieroglyphs was found in the tomb of a well-known Egyptian nobleman named Khnumhotep.
Greeks Influences
Additionally, in ancient times, the Spartan military made use of the technology in notable ways. It is said that the objective of using the cypher in the form of cryptographic content is ambiguous in nature. As shown in a variety of accounts, such procedures were basically used for authenticity, concealment, and to prevent any ill omens from manifesting themselves. Another approach for writing code was developed, which included winding the text sheet around a cylinder with a specific size and volume. Because of this, the phrase would be unintelligible until it was wound around with a cylinder of identical proportions. That’s pretty smart, right?
Steganography
The most well-known instances of steganography are the carving of messages into wax-covered surfaces and the branding of notes into the chopped heads of slaves.
The Classical Caesar Cipher
One of the most contemporary cryptographic procedures from history is the Caesar cypher. Julius Caesar, the Imperial, Roman king, used these simple shift cyphers to communicate with his armies and aristocrats in secret. The number of shifts made in order to cypher or decode the message would be the key in Caesar Cipher.
Renaissance and the Middle Ages
Despite the fact that significant improvements in cryptography were accomplished throughout the Middle Ages, the cryptographic system remained a benchmark in the field. Cryptography became more critical in the realm of secure transmission. Cryptanalysis, or the study of deciphering cyphers, first piqued the curiosity of scholars throughout the Middle Ages and quickly became a topic of widespread discussion.
The Polyalphabetic Cipher
Leone Alberti proposed polyalphabetic encryption that was difficult to decipher using normal decryption methods to make the data even more secure. When encrypting data, this approach makes use of two separate alphabets. The original comment will be written for one alphabet.
The second alphabet can then be used for replacement and mappings against the original comment in order to construct an unbreakable secret code that cannot be deciphered. The communications were rendered much more secure when the polyalphabetic cypher and substitution cyphers were used together. Hence, the polyalphabetic cypher was a complete success that yearned widespread acceptance and popularity.
Chronological Timeline of Cryptography
With the invention of writing, the discipline of cryptography is regarded to have come into being. Humans became more structured as civilizations progressed, forming tribes, clans, and monarchies. As a result, concepts like power, warfare, dominance, and politics began to arise. These concepts fostered the natural desire of individuals to converse in hidden with a limited number of recipients, which in consequence assured the continuing progress of cryptography. The origins of cryptography may be traced back to ancient Roman and Egyptian societies.
During excavations in the tomb of the nobleman Khnumhotep II in Egypt, archaeologists discovered a carved inscription that included the earliest known indication of the use of cryptography (in some form). In lieu of more common hieroglyphic characters, the writer of the ciphered text employed some strange hieroglyphic characters. It is said that the goal of adding such characters was not to conceal the message but rather to modify its appearance in a manner that would make it look more respectable and pleasant to the recipient.
100BC
Forward to roughly 100 BC, and it is known that Julius Caesar used a sort of decryption to communicate hidden messages with his military officers stationed on the front lines of the battle. This kind of cypher, often known as the Caesar cypher or substitution, is the most frequently discussed historical encryption in scholarly articles, and so you’ll come across it at certain points too.
Let’s try understanding how Caesar’s cypher really worked. In substitution-based encryption, each element of the clear text, which is the actual content that has to be coded, is replaced by some other word to generate the cypher text. Caesar used a cypher that was shifted by three positions. Three positions displaced each syllable; thus, the letter ‘A’ was substituted by the letter ‘D,’ the letter ‘B’ was replaced by the letter ‘E,’ and so on. As a result, the letter ‘X’ would be substituted with the letter ‘A’ at the conclusion of the sentence.
It is simple to understand that such cyphers rely on the confidentiality of the system rather than the encryption key to function correctly. Once the system has been identified, it is quite simple to decode the encrypted communications. In reality, the frequency of characters in a language may be used to breach or crack substitution cryptosystems.
16th Century
During the 16th Century, Vigenère devised a cypher that is widely considered the world’s first cypher, which used an encryption key. During the development of one of his cyphers, the secret key was duplicated numerous times over the whole messaging, and the cypher text was formed by multiplying the text component by the major character modulo 26. A mathematical phrase known as modulo or mod is used to determine the residual of a division whenever two numbers are divided.
Similarly to the Caesar cypher, Vigenère’s cypher can also be quickly decrypted; nevertheless, Vigenère’s cypher was notable for bringing the concept of data encryption into the equation, albeit it was poorly performed. Compared to the Caesar cypher, the anonymity of the message depends on the confidentiality of the private key instead of the privacy and confidentiality of the framework in this case.
19th Century
Moving forward, Hebern created an electro-mechanical device known as the Hebern rotor machine at the beginning of the nineteenth Century. This machine makes use of one rotor, which contains the encryption key in the rotating drum. Encryption text would then be generated by pressing keys on the keyboard. Consequently, a new table would be utilized for the following plain text character after the disc had been spun by one notch. This was once again defeated by the use of letter frequencies, as this strategy makes decoding much easier.
1920
A German engineer named Arthur Scherbius developed the Engima machine soon after World War I ended. The German army widely employed this gadget during the Second World War, given its ability to keep data confidential. Depending on the model, the Enigma machine had three, four, or possibly more rotors. As you input on the keyboard, the rotors spin at various speeds, and the cypher text is produced in the form of suitable letters.
Poland was ultimately successful in breaking the encryption of the Enigma machine, and the knowledge was subsequently transmitted to British cryptographers, who devised a method of acquiring the daily key from the device. Prior to WW2, the majority of cryptography research was conducted for military objectives, with the majority of it being employed to conceal sensitive military secrets. Following World War II, however, cryptography drew business interest as firms sought to protect their data from being stolen by rivals
1970
During the earlier months of 1970’s, IBM discovered that their clients were requesting some type of encryption, so they developed a “crypto group” under the leadership of Horst-Feistel. They came up with the name Lucifer for their encryption. In 1973, the National Bureau of Standards in the United States issued a request for suggestions for the development of a block cypher that would be adopted as a national standard.
An intense search assault against DES was launched in 1997, which continued for many years after that. The fundamental flaw of DES was the small size of the encryption system used in the encryption infrastructure. It became simpler to decode over time in the form of a predictable, plain text message as computer power improved over time.
In January 1997, the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) published a public call for candidates to replace the DES, approaching its useful life. It was found that there were 15 valid entries from 12 nations this time, all of which tried to substitute DES. Nevertheless, in October, Rijndael, which was sophisticated software developed by two Belgian cryptographers, got recognized as the gold standard, also known as the Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) 2000.
However, it should be noted that DES and AES were really different from each other. DES was so much more focused on its hardware infrastructure that almost no regard was given to the efficiency of its software configuration, i.e., the use of powerful microprocessors while designing the system. It was a consequence of this that the DES was unsuccessful in making effective use of the comprehensive microprocessors that were formed during the later years. Indeed, it lacked the necessary software it really needed to function.
However, on the other extreme, the AES requirements placed equal emphasis on both hardware & system implementations. Among other things, it identified smart cards as well as other point-of-sale systems, which often have pretty small computational power. But, perhaps, more importantly, it recognized the expanding demands of the internet-based community that was definitely the need of the time.
Advancements in the Recent Years
Throughout the years, the discipline of cryptography has consistently made significant strides forward, but there have been significant advances in the more recent centuries in particular.
Thomas Jefferson reported a great advance in cryptography in the 1790s, albeit it is possible that it was never implemented. His innovation, known as the cypher wheel, was made up of 36 rings of characters on rotating wheels that could have been utilized to produce sophisticated encrypting through the use of rotating wheels. This notion was so far ahead of its time that doing so actually served as a foundation for American Military Encryption all the way up, and that includes World War II, too.
The Enigma machine, which was developed during World War II, is considered to be the best example of analogue encryption. This device, utilized by the Axis forces, was similar to the wheel cypher in that it used revolving wheels to secure communications, making it practically hard to decode without another Enigma. Later, early computing technology was employed to assist in the breakage of the Enigma cypher. Additionally, the subsequent decoding of Enigma signals is by far regarded as a necessary element of the Allied triumph over Germany during World War II.
Cryptography in the Age of Computer
Because of the development of computers, cryptography has evolved significantly from its state during the analogue era. Algorithmic encryption with 128 bits of strength, which is significantly more powerful than any antique or mediaeval cypher, is currently the industry standard for many critical types of equipment and communications software types. A whole new kind of cryptography, termed quantum cryptography, has been under research by computer programmers since 1990, with the goal of raising the degree of safety provided by contemporary encryption yet again.
Cryptographic methods have also been employed to make cryptocurrencies feasible in more recent years. Hash functions, digital certificates, public-key encryption, and other complex cryptographic methods are all used in the creation of cryptocurrency transactions. These approaches are generally used to secure the storage of information kept on blockchains as well as the authentication of transactional data.
We all understand how critical users and their data safety and security are when it comes to online crypto operations, right? Isn’t it amazed to reckon that cryptography has a pivotal role to play here too? Speaking particularly about the security of Bitcoin and other cryptocurrency systems, Elliptical Curve Digital Signature Algorithm (ECDSA) is specially employed. This helps ensure that funds can only be used by their rightful owners and prevents money laundering.
Since its inception more than 4,000 years ago, cryptography has gone a long way, and it is not going to change any time soon. Cryptography is destined to evolve over time as long as there is a need to secure sensitive information, and this is forever, right? However, even though the cryptographic methods employed in bitcoin blockchains today are among the most sophisticated versions of this technology, they are still an important part of human existence.
Conclusion
To summarize, it is rather astonishing how little is known about the background of this fascinating topic. Cryptology has contributed immensely to forming and developing numerous communities and cultures throughout history with a little in question, cryptography, and in a general context.
While history may offer an alternative image, it is important to remember that the victors often compose the history books. How likely is it that an army would expose the existence of a powerful weapon that actually made them the victors of the war? Conversely, they would rather idealize their heroes rather than to disclose the clever dagger tactics that really lead to their achievement. The same is the case with cryptography.
Due to the nature of cryptography, it implies secrecy and deception; as a result, it should come as no surprise that the subject’s history is brief and difficult to get information about. What is previously written may include codes that are encoded. It is pretty complicated yet; just know this technique has a critical role in data safety and security.
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