Week 5: Cryptography
Introduction
Download this video clip.Video player: ou_futurelearn_cyber_security_vid_1016.mp4
Transcript
CORY DOCTOROW
Early in the course we looked at the importance of ensuring your digital information is kept secret and not tampered with. We called these goals confidentiality and integrity. This week we'll focus on a key technique called cryptography, which is concerned with securing information so that it can be transmitted safely, even over unsecured networks. You'll be learning the basic terminology of cryptography and how it can be used to achieve different security goals, including securing your emails and protecting your digital life. By the end of the week you'll also be able to explain the use of cryptography in common applications, such as the world wide web.
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Cory explains the focus for this week: cryptography.
Cryptography is a specialised area of mathematics concerned with protecting information so that it can be transmitted and received securely even when there is a risk that a hostile third party might intercept or modify the data. You will recognise it as it’s been mentioned before as a technique that can help with protecting information.
We are now going to look at this important aspect of cyber security in a little more detail.