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Glossary of Security Terms: Encryptionby@mozilla

Glossary of Security Terms: Encryption

by Mozilla Contributors
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Mozilla Contributors

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Mozilla (stylized as moz://a) is a free software community founded...

September 2nd, 2020
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Mozilla (stylized as moz://a) is a free software community founded in 1998 by members of Netscape. In cryptography, encryption is the conversion of cleartext into a coded text or ciphertext. A ciphertext is intended to be unreadable by unauthorized readers. The reverse operation, decryption, is mathematically hard to perform. How hard depends on the security of the cryptographic algorithm chosen and evolves with the progress of cryptanalysis. It is performed using a specific algorithm and a secret, called the key.

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Mozilla (stylized as moz://a) is a free software community founded in 1998 by members of Netscape.

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In cryptography, encryption is the conversion of cleartext into a coded text or ciphertext. A ciphertext is intended to be unreadable by unauthorized readers.

Encryption is a cryptographic primitive: it transforms a plaintext message into a ciphertext using a cryptographic algorithm called a cipher. ncryption in modern ciphers is performed using a specific algorithm and a secret, called the key. Since the algorithm is often public, the key must stay secret if the encryption stays secure.

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Without knowing the secret, the reverse operation, decryption, is mathematically hard to perform. How hard depends on the security of the cryptographic algorithm chosen and evolves with the progress of cryptanalysis.

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Mozilla (stylized as moz://a) is a free software community founded in 1998 by members of Netscape.

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