Glimpses from Cryptography: Basic Terminologies

Here are some of the terminologies used in cryptography in simple words.

Cryptography: Simple indicates "secret writing". It is the set of techniques used to secure the data using various techniques mainly powered by the concepts of mathematics. 

Cryptanalysis: It is the process of analyzing a cryptographic techniques to break the system, so that the secret message can be obtained.

Plain text: The message in the readable form.

Cipher text: The set of characters derived using plain text along with key using encryption algorithm.

KeySpace: The set of possible keys used for the process of encryption.

Key: An element randomly selected from KeySpace for encryption.

Encryption: The process of transforming Plane text into Cipher text using key.

Decryption: The process of regaining the plane text from cipher text using key.

Symmetric cryptosystem: A cryptosystem in which encryption and decryption are done using same key.

Asymmetric cryptography (Public Key cryptography): A system in which encryption is done using a key which is different from the key used for decryption.

Side Channel Attack: Apart from the mathematical techniques used for cryptanalysis, Some features such as power consumption of the system, Electromagnetic emission, Acoustic signals etc can be analyzed to obtain meaningful information from a cryptographic system are collectively called Side Channel Attack.