This is a very informative site that explains many cryptography concepts. He begins by defining cryptography as “the science of writing in secret code and is an ancient art” and mentions that the first documented use of dates back to 1900 BC Egypt.
After that he explains why cryptography is essential for today’s internet communication: “cryptography is necessary when communicating over any untrusted medium, which includes just about any network, particularly the Internet.”
“Cryptography, then, not only protects data from theft or alteration, but can also be used for user authentication. There are, in general, three types of cryptographic schemes typically used to accomplish these goals: secret key (or symmetric) cryptography, public-key (or asymmetric) cryptography, and hash functions, each of which is described below. In all cases, the initial unencrypted data is referred to as plaintext. It is encrypted into ciphertext, which will in turn (usually) be decrypted into usable plaintext.”
After that interesting beginning he starts with types of cryptographic algorithms over trust models to cryptographic algorithms in action. All supported by lots of figures that makes it easier to understand the concepts.
Take a look at gary kesslers site for the article.
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