Knowledge Management and Cryptography from a Historical Perspective

For the past several thousand years, groups of people including ancient societies, required methods to secure information. These motivations led to many new innovations in cryptography. The field of cryptography has been studied for an extended period of time. Within this period of time, the progression of cipher technology shows that knowledge was passed on from each cryptographic generation. The earliest forms of cryptography or data obfuscation were used to protect manufacturing secrets, trade routes, and military operational secrets during both world wars. With the invention of the Internet and other electronic communications, securing electronic transmissions is becoming more and more necessary and makes cryptography even more relevant. Each generation of cryptographic systems provided a framework to improve upon the next as each generation became obsolete. This paper will provide a detailed view of how cryptography has evolved and how knowledge was gained to meet the security needs of the present