ABSTRACT
Cryptographers are mathematicians who specialize in cryptography or cryptanalysis. Essentially, cryptanalysis is breaking protection mechanisms, whereas cryptography is making protection mechanisms. All cryptographers are mathematicians but not all mathematicians are cryptographers. Cryptography, like mathematics, is an evolving science. What might have been considered secure or good practices can change and become obsolete or vulnerable. Mathematical problems once considered difficult enough for cryptographic use have and will continue to get resolved such that better and stronger algorithms are always needed. Scientific research in physics and quantum computers will continue to increase computational capabilities such that strong algorithms eventually become weak and need to be replaced. Encryption provides data confidentiality, either in storage or during transmission. In general, the encryption process transforms data from cleartext to ciphertext using a cryptographic key such that any party without access to the key cannot reverse the process.
