Cryptography is the art and science of securely transmitting messages between two or more parties. In it's simplest form, it aims to provide a way to send a message (information) so that only the sender and receiver know what was sent in the message. In our course, Applied Cryptography, we dove deep into the study of all the required mechanisms, algorithms, implementation, and practices required to provide a high level of assurance that information meant to be private, remains private and intact from unauthorized persons. Each subsection of this Cryptography section describes critical mechanisms, and innovations involved in the art and science of cryptography. Cryptography is a modern marvel possible due to the incredibly fast microprocessors and decreased cost of computing equipment today. It is highly complex which means it is very often misunderstood by system administrators, software engineers, and systems engineers who incorrectly implement encryption into their designs and software.
In addition, marketing and public sentiment have adopted the view that a company using the phrases "encryption" or "military grade encryption" with their products implies that their privacy and their sensitive information is secure. This is not the case. Without a comprehensive understanding of cryptographic mechanisms, small mistakes render the entire cryptographic protection inadequate. A cryptographic system has many parts and by learning about these various parts, how they must work together, and putting in the work required to learn about them, we can ensure that our efforts are not wasted.