Cryptography is the science of writing in secret code and is an ancient art; the first documented use of cryptography in writing dates back to circa 1900 B.C. when an Egyptian scribe used nonstandard hieroglyphs in an inscription. Some experts argue that cryptography appeared spontaneously sometime after writing was invented, with applications ranging from diplomatic missives to wartime battle plans.
It is no surprise, then, that new forms of cryptography came soon after the widespread development of computer communications. In data and telecommunications, cryptography is necessary when communicating over any untrusted medium, which includes just about any network, particularly the Internet.
Cryptography is a method of protecting information and communications through the use of codes, so that only those for whom the information is intended can read and process it. The prefix "crypt-" means "hidden" or "vault" -- and the suffix "-graphy" stands for "writing."
Within the context of any application-to-application communication, there are some specific security requirements, including:
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Authentication: The process of proving one's identity. (The primary forms of host-to-host authentication on the Internet today are name-based or address-based, both of which are notoriously weak.)
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Privacy/confidentiality: Ensuring that no one can read the message except the intended receiver.
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Integrity: Assuring the receiver that the received message has not been altered in any way from the original.
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Nonrepudiation: A mechanism to prove that the sender really sent this message.
Cryptography, then, not only protects data from theft or alteration, but can also be used for user authentication. There are, in general, three types of cryptographic schemes typically used to accomplish these goals: secret key (or symmetric) cryptography, public-key (or asymmetric) cryptography, and hash functions.
In all cases, the initial unencrypted data is referred to as plaintext. It is encrypted into cipher-text, which will in turn (usually) be decrypted into usable plaintext.
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