Information Security Management Handbook, Volume 6, 6th Edition

Chapter 20

Elliptic Curve Cryptosystems

Jeff Stapleton

Cryptography Overview

Cryptography, from the Greek words “kryptos” and “graphin” for hidden and secret writing, has a broader meaning for protecting electronic information during transmission and in storage. The birth of writing, depending on one’s perspectives of ideographs, mnemonic symbols, or phonetic writing, seems to be somewhere between 8000 and 6000 years old. Cryptography, by comparison, is a 4000-year-old technology attributed to an Egyptian scribe using unusual hieroglyphics carved ...