Image: Wikimedia Commons

cryptography

Practice and study of secure communication techniques

Also known as cryptographic engineering · cryptology · crypto

Instance of: academic discipline
Subclass of: security engineering
, technique
Part of: cryptology

Overview

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia · Read full article · Text CC BY-SA 4.0

Cryptography, or cryptology, is the practice and study of techniques for secure communication in the presence of adversarial behavior. More generally, cryptography is about constructing and analyzing protocols that prevent third parties or the public from reading private messages. Modern cryptography exists at the intersection of the disciplines of mathematics, computer science, information security, electrical engineering, digital signal processing, physics, and others. Core concepts related to information security are also central to cryptography. Practical applications of cryptography include electronic commerce, chip-based payment cards, digital currencies, computer passwords and military communications.

Overview

All data

95 statements · 20% with external sources · numbers in brackets are citations

Members / parts: quantum cryptography
post-quantum cryptography
symmetric-key algorithm
public-key cryptography
Wikimedia outline: outline of cryptography
ACM Classification Code (2012): 10002979
Significant event: crypto wars
Practiced by: cryptographer
Is the study of: cryptosystem

On other databases

66 identifiers linking cryptography across the web's reference databases

Data quality

statements

20%

externally sourced

Source last edited September 6, 2026. AIDB refreshes this page daily.

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AIDB. (2026). cryptography (Q8789). Retrieved from https://aidb.si/e/cryptography-Q8789