The Internet or the global Internet is the internationally connected network of computer networks with addresses that are administrated by IANA (Internet address and Naming Authority). It grew dramatically because anyone can connect to it and anyone connected to it can connect others to it as well. Each site that connected to it, can become an Internet Service provider to other sites Does increased security provide comfort to paranoid people? Or does security provide some very basic protections that we are naive to believe that we don't need? During this time when the Internet provides essential communication between tens of millions of people and is being increasingly used as a tool for commerce, security becomes a tremendously important issue to deal with.
There are many aspects to security and many applications, ranging from secure commerce and payments to private communications and protecting passwords. One essential aspect for secure communications is that of cryptography. This paper has two major purposes. The first is to define some of the terms and concepts behind basic cryptographic methods, and to offer a way to compare the myriad cryptographic schemes in use today. The second is to provide some real examples of cryptography and new trends in use today.
I would like to say at the outset that this paper is very focused on terms, concepts, and schemes in current use and is not a treatise of the whole field.