Cryptography is an art that is involved in writing and interpreting secret messages. It involves encrypting messages into symbols, numbers, and letters that form a different meaning to conceal the message. In other words, it is the use of codes to conceal a message. In the past, cryptography was very common, especially during epochs of combat where it was deployed to communicate coded messages (Bauer 34). It was an important tool that a particular community would use to conceal messages from their enemies. Today, this mode of communication is rarely used. However, codes are commonly used in technology, especially in computers to code confidential data, like passwords and messages among others. Computer cryptographs are manually programmed where letters or numbers are used to convey a message. Mostly, codes are complex and use algebraic expressions to translate information (Carroll).
Cryptography is used for many reasons. The main reason why cryptography is popular is the ability to sustain privacy of information between the communicating parties. The path to maintaining confidentiality is the use of ciphers that are only knowledgeable to the involved parties. Cryptography is widely used in verification of information and proof of identity of persons. For instance, one can only access certain information in a company if he or she is verified as a member of that company through a password or a unique verification code (Bauer 72). In this case, it is used to verify information given, like digital signatures and passwords among others. It is also used to protect data integrity so that data remains intact and untampered.
Scytale, a device that was employed to send and receive the concealed messages, was the leading crypto device to be developed 1000 B.C. The device that was cylindrically shaped was in possession of both communication parties. They would use Scytale of the matching width that acted as the code to the encrypted message. The sender would write the letters that were coiled and given to courier to deliver to the recipient who would then re-coil on to a Scytale of the matching length to decode the message. Julius Cesar is a significant figure in history who used cryptography in his military undertakings. More so, Caesar cipher came into existence as a result of a particular method used by Julius Caesar (Bauer 96). The cipher is among the easiest methods where letters in a plain text are replaced by letters later in the alphabet. Providing an illustrative instance, letters in the text are moved three places behind along the alphabet. Later in the 16th epoch, a polyalphabetic encryption was developed, which involves the employment of a series of Caesar cipher alphabets and fixed interval as code. In 1499, Johannes Trithemius, a German author, invented the first polyalphabetic cipher. Later in 1586, Vigenere cipher was invented by Vigenere, a Frenchman as an upgrade of Caesar cipher (Soergel). Both ciphers used a table of alphabets where letters in each row were made by shifting the earlier letter to the left. The cipher code was used in deciding the alphabet order that was used.
The Scytale was an invention of the Greeks that was made by a wooden rod and a narrow strip of leather, which was wrapped along the rod. A message was encrypted across it. The recipient would then unwrap the concealed message around another rod of similar size where letters would change the order; hence, decoding the message. This technique of cipher is referred to as transposition cipher.
Thomas Jefferson in 1780’s developed a wheel code while he was the secretary to the president in as an advancement to the previous ciphers. The cipher was a disk made of wood, which had the alphabet written on the peripheries. The letters were printed without a specific order, and they would produce many ciphers as the wheels were turned. The USA military improved the Jefferson wheel, which they created an electrical form of the equivalent. The re-invented wheel was referred to as M-94 (Bauer 45).
As World War 1 was ending, there were several inventions of rotor cipher machines in various locations in the world. The earlier ciphers had been advanced by Edward Hebern, who was American in 1917. In 1918, a German engineer by the name Arthur Scherbius developed enigma and later Hugo Koch, a Dutch, carried on the invention in 1919. In the same year, Arvid Damm, a Swedish engineer invented a rotor cipher in Finland. They advanced the simple cipher devices to using rotors, which created a complex substitution of letters using wired wheels. Arthur, who was an engineer by profession, created a rotor cipher machine, and he named it the enigma. It resembled a typewriter where each input on the cipher decodes the message. Later, the machine was taken up by the Germany Navy and Army in 1926 and 1928 respectively where they both re-invented the machine to customize their needs. The Enigma was used in the WWII after several advancements, like plug boards. The Japanese also developed a crypto device that resembled an enigma that saw the light of day during the WW II. The Enigma cipher could not be decoded even by the allies until an invention of the Enigma was sold to British. During the World War 2, the German militants were not careful on critical issues like changing the notch positions for each wheel which had a unique letter (Bauer 82). Due to this mistakes, their allies were able to break their secret messages which played a huge role in their defeat in WWII.
The leading computer was invented as the WWII came to an end as an advancement of rotor cipher the machine. The machine was invented by British intelligent but was later destroyed to uphold a secret project. It greatly equipped Britain to decode the Enigma and hence played a core role in the defeat of the Germans.
In 1945, the first electronic computer referred to as Electronic Numerical Integrator was invented in America. It was primarily created to solve numerical problems and ability to decrypt the Enigma, specifically for the USA military. The project was headed by two intellects at the University of Pennsylvania (Caroll). The process of pre-programmed encryption continued even after WWII. During and after the WWII, Kl-7 was invented be used off-line, which used complex patterns using notch rings. Around 1962 in Canada, The KWR-37 was invented for the Navy in advancement for crypto gear. Both were widely used by Navy in convoy communications, but their intellect was compromised in 1980’s forcing them to be destroyed.
During the war period, several forms of systems were developed to encrypt messages. The objective of developers was to encrypt messages that would be difficult to decrypt. However, majority of the systems were compromised and would be breached. Despite these shortcomings, most crypto devices played a huge role in the creation of history like Enigma. As an advancement to these algorithms, developers have played a code role in the creation of computers in their quest to create complex crypto devices (yyy).
Throughout the WWII, most inventions of crypto devices were created for the military to be used in the war to maintain army secrets. However, after the war, cryptography diversified into the corporate world where business adopted this invention to protect their data. In 1970’s, IBM team headed by Horst Feistel capitalized on the growing commercial demand for data encryption and developed Lucifer. The NIST in 1973, offered Lucifer tender to supply the machine to protect highly sensitive government documents. It was later was named Data Encryption Standard. However, in the ensuing years, DES was a lot of critiques, especially because the encryption code was very tiny. With the creation of computers, there was a need for IBM to improve encryption code to take possibly the form of a plain text. In 1997, the Bureau requested another company to supply computers to the government due to the weakness of DES. Unfortunately, DES was not chosen and was considered insecure (Bauer 143). In 2000, the NIST selected Rijndael and chastised it for Advanced Encryption Standard.
History has taught us valuable lessons concerning cryptography. First and foremost, the encryption code is the solution to the concealment of data and not the encryption scheme. For instance, if the code is known by the third party, the third party can access the information. However, if the structure is attacked, the bare text of encrypted messages in the system stands to be revealed. Secondly, it is important to check public reviews of ciphers establish they meet the required standards before adopting any system.
The earliest cryptography was found in Egypt town about four thousand years ago carved on the grave of a high-ranking man. In 1900 BC, a slave drew symbols and letters on the cave of his master to hide the message. Concealing of messages by using symbols and letters for another character to hide meaning is referred to as substitution cipher (Macdonald n.d.)
Today, demand for this technology has led to increased innovation concerning security of data both for individuals and corporates. Cryptography is mainly used to date to keep off third parties from accessing secured information or data. It is widely used by companies in applications like securing emails, online signatures, online banking, remote controls, mobile phones, ATMs, smartcard among others to secure sensitive information among other uses.
Cryptography plays a major role in securing confidential and sensitive information through encryption which can only be accessed by using decryption code. Modern algorithms are mainly concerned with maintaining the confidentiality of the message such that only the intended recipient can understand the information. Secondly, it is concerned with data integrity such that data remains intact and not altered as it transits from sender to receiver. Thirdly, it acts as nonrepudiation, which is the guarantee that the sender cannot deny the message or intentions to send the message. Lastly, it plays a huge role of authentication which essentially is confirming the identity of both sender and receiver.
Social Perspective and Future Projections
Today, cryptography algorithms are highly sophisticated, especially due to advancing technology. However, the systems still stand at risks of being hacked and gaining access to data or passwords among other security concerns. Just like technology is being used to create complex algorithms, the same technology is being used to break the code and the most common is a brute force where it is concerned with breaking the encryption code. Therefore, it is important that developers of this system create complex codes that cannot be breaked. The way to ensure the safety of this code is creating input using numbers and ensuring that a number is only used once to access data.
Cipher algorithms are not completely secured. With the increasing technology today in cryptography, chances of breaking algorithm encryption codes are high. Developers of these ciphers must frequently modify the systems to maintain the integrity of the system. It means, therefore, that developers must be willing to adopt inventions and do away with some inventions to maintain system reliability. The creation of quantum computers, which is still ongoing, poses a threat to cryptography algorithms. It is believed that the quantum computer will have the ability decrypt most cryptographic algorithms in existence today (Caroll).
Work Cited
Bauer, Craig. Secret History: The Story of Cryptology. New York: CRC Press, 2013. Print
