Cryptography Basics for the Aspiring Hacker
Welcome back, my rookie hackers! As hackers, we are often faced with the hurdle of cryptography and encryption. In some cases, we use it to hide our actions and messages. Many applications and protocols use encryption to maintain confidentiality and integrity of data. To be able to crack passwords and encrypted protocols such as SSL and wireless, you need to at least be familiar with the concepts and terminology of cryptography and encryption. To many new hackers, all the concepts and terminology of cryptography can be a bit overwhelming and opaque. Cryptography is the science and art of hiding messages so that they are confidential, then "unhiding" them so that only the intended recipient can read them. Basically, we can say that cryptography is the science of secret messaging. With this brief overview for the newcomer, I hope to lift the fog that shrouds this subject and shed a tiny bit of light on cryptography. I intend this simply to be a quick and cursory overv