Transcript

MSc Cyber Security / Cryptography / The need for secrecy

EECT030 / 7031CEM / SC1 / Step 2.1

The need for secrecy

For thousands of years secrecy and confidentiality and communication
has been of critical importance to all civilisations. This necessity to
shroud the content of important documents and messages has challenged
authors to make their correspondence undecipherable by adversaries.

From this need for secrecy, the art of cryptography was born.

The development of cryptographic processes and algorithms to encrypt

the content of communications in a secure way has allowed us to protect
our intellectual property. It has aided diplomacy, but also espionage. It
has oppressed groups, built businesses and it has enabled wars to be
won or lost.

As cryptographic methods have advanced, the desire to intercept

communications and decrypt their code to reveal a message’s true
meaning has emerged.

These two cryptographic factions – cryptography, the encryption of a

messages text and cryptanalysis, the decryption of an encoded message
– have since been locked in an eternal power struggle.

Each discipline is as important as the other, neither branch defined by

their moral or ethical stance. Individually they are used for both good and
evil, and both are aspiring to have the upper-hand in this perpetual battle.

I represent 'The Guild of Cryptographers'.

And, I represent 'The Guild of Cryptanalysts'.

In this module we will be your guide as we explore how advances in

cryptography and cryptanalysis have influenced the past and have
© Coventry University.
Licenced under the Creative Commons Attribution-
NonCommercial 4.0 International licence (CC BY-NC 4.0)
Transcript
shaped every aspect of the modern world.

In the digital age encryption underpins almost every process that we

undertake on a daily basis from the moment we wake until the moment
we sleep.

The boundaries between cryptography and cryptanalysis have now

become blurred. The good are now forced to hack, and the bad conceal
their actions with new algorithms.

Every moment we are trying to crack new codes, to build better systems.

We're in a constant state of tension. A state of war.

Which side is winning? We'll let you decide?

© Coventry University.
Licenced under the Creative Commons Attribution-
NonCommercial 4.0 International licence (CC BY-NC 4.0)