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cryptography
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Enigma Jade cipher machine Purple cipher machine Frequency distribution for plaintext and its repeated-key Vigenère cipher Diagram explaining the German ADFGVX cipher from World War I, showing a biliteral substitution array, examples of plaintext and intermediate ciphertext in red, and a transposition matrix with final ciphertext in blue. DES flow diagram A Vigenere cipher table displays the alphabet in both the top row and left column, with rows shifted to create a grid for encryption and decryption. Highlighted letters illustrate how to use the table. An explanation and example using the words cipher, key, and plaintext appears to the right.
How William Friedman Tried to Prove That Francis Bacon Wrote Shakespeare's Plays
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cryptography

cryptology
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cryptography, Practice of the enciphering and deciphering of messages in secret code in order to render them unintelligible to all but the intended receiver. Cryptography may also refer to the art of cryptanalysis, by which cryptographic codes are broken. Collectively, the science of secure and secret communications, involving both cryptography and cryptanalysis, is known as cryptology. The principles of cryptography are today applied to the encryption of fax, television, and computer network communications. In particular, the secure exchange of computer data is of great importance to banking, government, and commercial communications. See also data encryption.

This article was most recently revised and updated by William L. Hosch.