

Symmetric algorithms are also known as ‘secret key’ algorithms, and asymmetric algorithms are known as ‘public key’ algorithms. These can be broken down into two basic types of encryptions - symmetric algorithms and asymmetric algorithms. In response to that, we’ve developed very strong, complex algorithms. Unfortunately, advances in analysis, particularly pattern analysis driven by very powerful computers, made these types of cyphers very easy to break. Using this cipher, the message, ‘Hello’ translates to ‘Uryyb’.

Then, each letter of the alphabet corresponds to a different letter, but it is difficult to figure out which one, if you don’t already know. For example, if you just shift all the letters in the alphabet by a few, the alphabet might look like the following: One of the earliest ciphers involved a simple shift. This is designed to protect data in transit. It is a two way function (you need to be able to undo whatever scrambling you’ve done to the message). Encryption is encoding messages with the intent of only allowing the intended recipient to understand the meaning of the message. Cryptography is the science of using codes and ciphers to protect messages, at its most basic level.
