ETYM Cf. French cryptographie.
The science of discovering new methods for encrypting information.
The use of codes to convert data so that only a specific recipient will be able to read it using a key. The persistent problem of cryptography is that the key must be transmitted to the intended recipient and may be intercepted. Public key cryptography is a recent significant advance. Also called: crypto. See also code1 (definition 2), encryption, PGP, private key, public key.
The act or art of writing in secret characters; also, secret characters, or cipher.
Science of creating and reading codes; for example, those produced by the Enigma coding machine used by the Germans in World War II and those used in commerce by banks encoding electronic fund-transfer messages, business firms sending computer-conveyed memos between headquarters, and in the growing field of electronic mail. The breaking and decipherment of such codes is known as “cryptanalysis”. No method of encrypting is completely unbreakable, but decoding can be made extremely complex and time consuming.