This article is about algorithms for encryption and decryption. For an overview of cryptographic technology in general, see Cryptography. For the album by Pro-jekt, see Encryption (album).
"Encrypt" redirects here. For the film, see Encrypt (film).
In cryptography, encryption is the process of encoding information. This process converts the original representation of the information, known as plaintext, into an alternative form known as ciphertext. Ideally, only authorized parties can decipher a ciphertext back to plaintext and access the original information. Encryption does not itself prevent interference but denies the intelligible content to a would-be interceptor.
For technical reasons, an encryption scheme usually uses a pseudo-random encryption key generated by an algorithm. It is possible to decrypt the message without possessing the key but, for a well-designed encryption scheme, considerable computational resources and skills are required. An authorized recipient can easily decrypt the message with the key provided by the originator to recipients but not to unauthorized users.
Historically, various forms of encryption have been used to aid in cryptography. Early encryption techniques were often used in military messaging. Since then, new techniques have emerged and become commonplace in all areas of modern computing.[1] Modern encryption schemes use the concepts of public-key and symmetric-key.[1] Modern encryption techniques ensure security because modern computers are inefficient at cracking the encryption.
^ abKessler, Gary (November 17, 2006). "An Overview of Cryptography". Princeton University.
In cryptography, encryption is the process of encoding information. This process converts the original representation of the information, known as plaintext...
Homomorphic encryption is a form of encryption that allows computations to be performed on encrypted data without first having to decrypt it. The resulting...
Advanced Encryption Standard (AES), also known by its original name Rijndael (Dutch pronunciation: [ˈrɛindaːl]), is a specification for the encryption of electronic...
Authenticated Encryption (AE) is an encryption scheme which simultaneously assures the data confidentiality (also known as privacy: the encrypted message...
itself is only suitable for the secure cryptographic transformation (encryption or decryption) of one fixed-length group of bits called a block. A mode...
volume encryption feature included with Microsoft Windows versions starting with Windows Vista. It is designed to protect data by providing encryption for...
Disk encryption is a technology which protects information by converting it into code that cannot be deciphered easily by unauthorized people or processes...
The Data Encryption Standard (DES /ˌdiːˌiːˈɛs, dɛz/) is a symmetric-key algorithm for the encryption of digital data. Although its short key length of...
Link encryption is an approach to communications security that encrypts and decrypts all network traffic at each network routing point (e.g. network switch...
Cryptography prior to the modern age was effectively synonymous with encryption, converting readable information (plaintext) to unintelligible nonsense...
Pretty Good Privacy (PGP) is an encryption program that provides cryptographic privacy and authentication for data communication. PGP is used for signing...
In cryptography and steganography, plausibly deniable encryption describes encryption techniques where the existence of an encrypted file or message is...
In cryptography, the ElGamal encryption system is an asymmetric key encryption algorithm for public-key cryptography which is based on the Diffie–Hellman...
cryptography, null encryption (or selecting null cipher or NONE cipher) is choosing not to use encryption in a system where various encryption options are offered...
Email encryption is encryption of email messages to protect the content from being read by entities other than the intended recipients. Email encryption may...
A deterministic encryption scheme (as opposed to a probabilistic encryption scheme) is a cryptosystem which always produces the same ciphertext for a...
Caesar's code, or Caesar shift, is one of the simplest and most widely known encryption techniques. It is a type of substitution cipher in which each letter in...
Encryption software is software that uses cryptography to prevent unauthorized access to digital information. Cryptography is used to protect digital information...
Probabilistic encryption is the use of randomness in an encryption algorithm, so that when encrypting the same message several times it will, in general...
In cryptography, Triple DES (3DES or TDES), officially the Triple Data Encryption Algorithm (TDEA or Triple DEA), is a symmetric-key block cipher, which...
as cascade encryption, cascade ciphering, multiple encryption, and superencipherment. Superencryption refers to the outer-level encryption of a multiple...
Database encryption can generally be defined as a process that uses an algorithm to transform data stored in a database into "cipher text" that is incomprehensible...
Protocol encryption (PE), message stream encryption (MSE) or protocol header encrypt (PHE) are related features of some peer-to-peer file-sharing clients...
Functional encryption (FE) is a generalization of public-key encryption in which possessing a secret key allows one to learn a function of what the ciphertext...
(HTTPS) is an extension of the Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP). It uses encryption for secure communication over a computer network, and is widely used on...