Algorithm: A procedure that is carried out in sequential steps to solve a problem.
Attack: An attempt to break into a cryptosystem.
Authentication: The process of verifying information including identity, ownership, or authorization.
Back Door: A cipher design fault that allows access to a system who discover the secret.
Blind Signature Scheme: Scheme that allows one party to have another party sign a message without knowing the contents.
Block Cipher: Encrypts data in blocks.
Certificate: An electronic document provided by Certifying Authorities that binds information that identifies the owner with a public key.
Clipper: An encryption chip developed by the US government to be used in all encrypted communications. It would allow the government to “listen in” after obtaining a warrant.
Cryptography: The method of making information secure.
Decryption: Term for extracting information that has been encrypted.
Digital Fingerprint: Similar to digital signature.
Digital Signature: The value that provides authentication in an electronic document.
Distributed Key: A key that is divided into several parts and shared with multiple participants.
Encryption: Term used to define hiding information in a secret cipher.
Expiration Date: Date when a certificate or key expires.
Forgery: Data item with content that misleads the recipient into believing it came from a different source.
Key: A string of bits that allows someone to encrypt or decrypt data.
Key Schedule: In a Block Cipher this is the algorithm that generates the subkeys.
Key Space: A collection of all the possible keys for a cryptosystem.
Life Cycle: How long a key can be used and still provide adequate security.
One Time Password: A password that can only be used once.
Password: A key in the form of a word or group of characters that allows the user to access an area that is secure.
Plain Text: Data to be encrypted.
Random Number Generator: A device or algorithm that generates a sequence of numbers that has no set pattern.
Reusable Password: A password that can be used repeatedly.
Running Time: How long it takes for a specific algorithm to run as a function.
Salt: An arbitrary value that is attached to a password before hash authentication, that is unique to a specific user.
Secret Key: A crypto key with a symmetric algorithm that is used for both encrypting and decrypting the same data.
Server: A computer that provides services to other computers, or a software program that provides a specific service to client software running on that computer or others n a network.
Session Key: A key that is used only one time for a single session or message and then is discarded.
SKIPJACK: The Block Cipher that is in the Clipper Chip.
Sniffing: An attack that copies the content of network messages to obtain information such as passwords.
Splitting: The process of dividing a crypto key into two parts so that the key can’t be reconstructed if an attacker intercepts one part.
Symmetric Cipher: Ciper that uses the same key to encrypt as well as to decrypt the data.
Transmission Control Protocol: Internet protocol that is used to provide a reliable connection between a server and a client.
Transport Mode: ESP mode that encrypts the data but not the original IP addresses.
Tunnel Mode: ESP mode that encrypts data and IP addresses.
Vernam Cipher: The original cipher that was developed to encrypt teletype traffic, patented in 1919.
Vulnerability: Weakness in security that could allow an opponent to attack and penetrate a cryptosystem.
Wide Area Network: A group of host computers and sites that are connected across a wide geographic area through a network.
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