Symmetric Key Example
Let be the plaintext message that Alice wants to secretly transmit to Bob and let be the encryption cipher, where is a secret key. Alice must first transform the plaintext into ciphertext, in order to securely send the message to Bob.
Both Alice and Bob must know the choice of key, or else the ciphertext is useless. Once the message is encrypted as ciphertext, Alice can safely transmit it to Bob (assuming no one else knows the key). In order to read Alice's message, Bob must decrypt the ciphertext using which is known as the decryption cipher, .
Read more about this topic: Ciphertext
Famous quotes containing the word key:
“Now narrow minds can develop as well through persecution as through benevolence; they can assure themselves of their power by tyrannizing cruelly or beneficently over others; they go the way their nature guides them. Add to this the guidance of interest, and you will have the key to most social riddles.”
—Honoré De Balzac (1799–1850)