History of Cryptography
The art of cryptography is considered to be born along with the art of writing. As civilizations evolved, human beings got systematized in tribes, groups, and kingdoms. This led to the emergence of ideas such as supremacy, clashes, sovereignty, and politics. These ideas additionally fuelled the natural need of people to connect secretly with selective recipient which in turn ensured the continuous evolution of cryptography as well. The roots of cryptography are found in Roman and Egyptian civilizations. Hieroglyph − The Oldest Cryptographic Technique The first known evidence of cryptography can be traced to the use of ‘hieroglyph’. Some 4000 years ago, the Egyptians used to communicate by messages written in hieroglyph. This code was the secret known only to the scribes who used to transmit messages on behalf of the kings. Later, the scholars moved on to using simple mono-alphabetic substitution ciphers during 500 to 600 BC. This involved replacing alphabets of messa...