Title: Foundations of Cryptology
Course: IN 2001 Principle of Information Assurance > Section: Module 8: Chapter Eight

Cryptology Terminology
- Algorithm: The mathematical formula used to convert an unencrypted message into an encrypted message.
- Cipher: The transformation of the individual components (characters, bytes or bits) of an unencrypted message into encrypted components.
- Ciphertext or cryptogram: The unintelligible encrypted or encoded message that results from an encryption.
- Code: The transformation of the larger components (words or phrases) of an unencrypted message into encrypted components.
- Cryptosystem: The set of transformations necessary to convert an unencrypted message into an encrypted message.
- Decipher: To decrypt or convert ciphertext to plaintext.
- Encipher: To encrypt or convert plaintext to ciphertext.
- Key or cryptovariable: The information used in conjunction with the algorithm to create ciphertext from plaintext.
- Keyspace: The entire range of values that can possibly be used to construct an individual key.
- Link encryption: A series of encryptions and decryptions between a number of systems, wherein each system in a network decrypts the message sent to it and then re-encrypts it using different keys and sends it to the next neighbor.  This process continues until the message reaches the final destination.
- Plaintext: The original unencrypted message that is encrypted. Plaintext is also the name given to the results of a message that has been successfully decrypted.
- Steganography: The process of hiding messages in a picture or graphic.
- Work factor: The amount of effort (usually in hours) required to perform cryptanalysis on an encoded message so that it can be decrypted when the key or algorithm (or both) are unknown.