Encryption is the
process of obscuring information
to make it unreadable without special knowledge. While encryption has
been used to protect communications for centuries, only organizations
and individuals with an extraordinary need for secrecy had made use of
it. In the mid-1970s, strong encryption emerged from the sole preserve
of secretive government agencies into the public domain, and is now
employed in protecting widely-used systems, such as Internet
e-commerce, mobile telephone networks and bank automatic teller
machines.
Encryption can be used to
ensure
secrecy, but other techniques are
still needed to make communications secure, particularly to verify the
integrity and authenticity of a message; for example, a message
authentication code (MAC) or digital signatures. Another consideration
is protection against traffic analysis.
Encryption or software
code
obfuscation is also used in software copy protection against reverse
engineering, unauthorized application analysis, cracks and software
piracy used in different encryption or obfuscating software.
Citation:
Encryption. (2006, October 27). In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia.
Retrieved 05:43, October 28, 2006, from http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Encryption&oldid=84073599