Cryptology

Cryptology is the scientific study of secure communication and of codes and ciphers. It has two branches: cryptography, which designs methods to protect information, such as ciphers, digital signatures and hash functions; and cryptanalysis, which studies how to break them or find their weaknesses. The two develop together, since every new design must be tested against known attacks. Cryptology has a long history in diplomacy and warfare, from simple letter substitution to the breaking of Germany's Enigma machine in the Second World War, and since the 1970s it has become a branch of mathematics and computer science with open research. Modern banking, card payments and cryptocurrencies all rely on its results. In everyday use, "cryptology" and "cryptography" are often treated as synonyms. Also see Cryptographic Hash Function and Public Key.