Cryptography (or cryptology) is the practice and study of hiding information.
The word is derived from the Greek:
Crypto comes from the Greek word Kryptos, meaning hidden,secret.
Graph-y derives from the Greek Graphein: To write.
The art of protecting information by transforming it (encrypting it) into an unreadable format, called cipher text.
Only those who possess a secret key can decipher (or decrypt) the message into plain text.
Encrypted messages can sometimes be broken by cryptanalysis, also called codebreaking, although modern cryptography techniques are virtually unbreakable.
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