Conventional Encryption

• Five components to the algorithm

  • Plaintext: The original message or data
  • Encryption algorithm: Performs various substitutions and transformations on the plaintext
  • Secret key: Input to the encryption algorithm. Substitutions and transformations performed depend on this key
  • Ciphertext: Scrambled message produced as output. depends on the plaintext and the secret key
  • Decryption algorithm: Encryption algorithm run in reverse. Uses ciphertext and the secret key to produce the original plaintext