Express Learning: Cryptography and Network Security

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Cryptography and Finite Fields

1. Explain the term cryptography in brief.

Ans.: Cryptography is a means for implementing some security mechanisms. The term cryptography is derived from the Greek word kryptos, which means “secret writing”. In simple terms, cryptography is the process of altering messages in a way that their meaning is hidden from adversaries who might intercept them. It allows the sender to disguise a message to prevent it from being read or altered by an intruder, and it also enables the receiver to recover the original message from the disguised one.

In data and telecommunications, cryptography is an essential technique required for communicating over any untrusted medium, which includes any network, such as the Internet. ...