.NET Security and Cryptography

Security and Keeping Secrets

Security is the art of protecting access to information and other computing resources from those whom you do not fully trust. Of course, security is only possible if you are able to keep certain secrets, such as passwords, keys, and so forth. Security is ultimately based on one simple concept: keeping secrets. Indeed, cryptography is the science of keeping secrets. In fact, cryptography is generally nothing more than hiding large secrets (which are themselves awkward to hide) with small secrets (which are more convenient to hide). As we will see in the next section, the large secret is typically referred to as plaintext, and the small secret is referred to as the encryption key.

Basic Cryptographic Terminology

A ...