Abstract

Since the ancient Egyptian empire, man has searched for ways to protect information from getting into the wrong hands. Julius Caesar used a simple substitution cipher to protect secrets. During World War II, the Allies and the Axis had codes that they used to protect information. Now that we have computers at our disposal, the methods used to protect data in the past are ineffective. More recently, computer scientists and mathematicians have been working diligently to develop cryptosystems which will provide absolute security in a computing environment.

The three major cryptosystems in use today are DES, RSA, and the Knapsack Cryptosystem. These cryptosystems have been reviewed and the positive and negative aspects of each is discussed. A newcomer to the field of cryptology is the Random Spline Cryptosystem which is discussed in detail.

Department(s)

Computer Science

Comments

This report is substantially the M.S. thesis of the first author, completed May 1993.

Report Number

CSC-93-11

Document Type

Technical Report

Document Version

Final Version

File Type

text

Language(s)

English

Rights

© 1993 University of Missouri--Rolla, All rights reserved.

Publication Date

01 May 1993

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