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We have all heard the word ‘encrypted’ used many times on television or in movies.  It is usually implies some form of security or an obstacle that needs to be overcome by some button pushing by a man in a lab coat.  Shows such as CSI and Law and Order use it, almost indiscriminately and often inaccurately.  So what exactly is encryption and what does it mean to say that a message is encrypted?  In this post, I shall describe the motivation behind cryptography, a number of early encryption schemes and the idea behind modern cryptography. In the second post in this series, I will describe more modern algorithms as they are used today in computers to protect your identity, privacy and security on the Internet.
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