Abstract:
Cryptography in the past was used in keeping military information, diplomatic correspondence secure and in protecting the national security. However, the use was limited. Nowadays, the range of cryptography applications have been expanded a lot in the modern area after the development of communication means; cryptography is essentially required to ensure that data are protected against penetrations and to prevent espionage. Also, cryptography is a powerful mean in securing e-commerce. Cryptography is used to ensure that the contents of a message are confidentiality transmitted and would not be altered. Confidentiality means nobody can understand the received message except the one who has the decipher key, and data cannot be changed means the original information would not be changed or modified; this is done when the sender includes a cryptographic operation called a hash function in the original message. A hash function is a mathematical representation of the information, when any
information arrives at its receiver; the receiver calculates the value of this hash function. If the receiver’s hash function value is equivalent to the sender’s, the integrity of the message is assured .
