About
In cryptography, encryption is the conversion of plaintext into a coded text or ciphertext; a ciphertext is intended to be unreadable by unauthorised readers1.
How it works
Encryption is a cryptographic primitive: it transforms a plaintext message into a ciphertext using a cryptographic algorithm called a cipher. Encryption in modern ciphers is performed using a specific algorithm and a secret, called the key. Since the algorithm is often public, the key must stay secret if the encyrption stays secure. #+begin_center
Encryption © Mozilla
Without knowing the secret, the reverse operation, decryption, is mathematically hard to perform. How hard depends on the security of the cryptographic algorithm chosen and evolves with the progress of cryptanalysis.
Anki
Links
References
MDN. “encryption”. Available at: https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Glossary/Encryption. (Accessed: ). ↩︎