40 Algorithms Every Programmer Should Know

The Basic Terminology

Let's look at the basic terminology related to cryptography:

• Cipher: An algorithm that performs a particular cryptographic function.

• Plain text: The plain data, which can be a text file, a video, a bitmap, or a digitized voice. In this chapter, we will represent plain text as P.

• Cipher text: The scrambled text that is obtained after applying cryptography to the plain text. In this chapter, we will represent this as C.

• Cipher suite: A set or suite of cryptographic software components. When two separate nodes want to exchange messages using cryptography, they first need to agree on a cipher suite. This is important in ensuring that they use exactly the same implementation of the cryptographic functions.

• Encryption: The ...