cryptography
Let an agent explain cryptography and its main building blocks at a conceptual level, relay standards and recommendations from standards bodies, distinguish cryptography from related fields, and route implementation and security decisions to current standards and qualified practice rather than improvising.
Bundle → Layer → Finding → Questions Filled
4 bundles · 8 layers · 8 findings · 16 questions
Concept What cryptography is.
Definition
Goals and primitives.
Definition
Definition.
- What are the goals of cryptography, and what primitives achieve them? definition
- Is the question about cryptography, cryptanalysis, cybersecurity or cryptocurrency? boundary
Assumptions
Hardness assumptions.
Assumptions
Assumptions.
- On what mathematical assumptions do modern schemes rest, and what is provable security? definition
- Which entry fits a specific primitive? action
Practice Standards and use.
Standards
Standards.
Standards
Standards.
- Which standards and recommendations govern algorithm choice and key sizes? provenance
- Which entry fits a specific standard? action
Protocols
Protocols.
Protocols
Protocols.
- How do protocols such as TLS combine primitives, in general terms? provenance
- Is the user asking how to bypass a protection or attack a system, which the model declines? boundary
Threats Attacks and evolution.
Attacks
Classes of attack.
Attacks
Attacks.
- What classes of attack exist at a conceptual level, and why do algorithms get deprecated? provenance
- Which references are standard? provenance
Quantum
Post-quantum transition.
Quantum
Quantum.
- How does quantum computing threaten current schemes, and what is the post-quantum transition? provenance
- Which entry fits post-quantum cryptography? action
Context Law, history and teaching.
Law
Law and policy.
Law
Law.
- What laws and debates surround encryption, export and lawful access, with positions attributed? provenance
- Is the presentation neutral? boundary
History
History.
History
History.
- How did cryptography develop from classical ciphers to public key systems? provenance
- Which entry fits the history of cryptography? action
Classifiers Filled
- Family
- Thing Registry
- Category
- Information and virtual systems
- Entry kind
- thing
- Plane
- INF
- Domain
- INF.KNW
- Other names and narrower kinds
- White-box cryptography, kleptography, hybrid cryptosystem, non-commutative cryptography, cryptocurrency mining, cryptovirology, information-theoretic security, Certificateless cryptography, Japanese cryptology from the 1500s to Meiji, PRF advantage, post-quantum cryptography, Yao's test
What it is Filled
The practice and study of techniques for secure communication and data protection in the presence of adversaries, using encryption, digital signatures, hash functions and protocols built on mathematical hardness assumptions; modern cryptography underpins secure web traffic, payments, messaging and digital identity, and is governed by standards, export rules and research on new threats such as quantum computing.
Why it exists Filled
Let an agent explain cryptography and its main building blocks at a conceptual level, relay standards and recommendations from standards bodies, distinguish cryptography from related fields, and route implementation and security decisions to current standards and qualified practice rather than improvising.
Distinguishing features Filled
- Security defined against adversaries
- Based on hardness assumptions
- Standardised primitives and protocols
- Continuous evolution against new attacks
What robots and AI may and may not do Filled
Must not
- Design home-made cryptography for real protection or present it as secure.
- Help break encryption protecting data the user has no right to access.
- Use deprecated algorithms or weak keys for new systems.
- Store or expose private keys outside secure storage.
Only with a human decision
- Rotating or revoking keys that others depend on.
- Deciding on lawful access to encrypted data.
May
- Use well-reviewed, standard cryptographic libraries and algorithms in systems it is authorized to build.
- Explain cryptographic concepts and the status of algorithms with sources.
Moral aspects Filled
- Cryptography protects privacy, money and dissidents; weakening it harms many people.
- It can also hide crime, which makes lawful access debates hard.
Who is affected
- Users of secure systems
- Journalists and activists
- Organisations holding data
Owners Filled
Steward
Nobody owns the field; key holders answer for their keys.
Links to other meta-models Filled
parent
- Q2695280 - registry parent class
- Q365674 - registry parent class
related
- security engineering - a discipline within it
- cryptanalysis - the study of breaking ciphers
- information security - the application field
- National Institute of Standards and Technology - and other bodies
What else AI and robots need to interact with it Filled
Identity and identifiers required Filled
- Vercy registry: vr.tr.cryptography
- Wikidata: Q8789 (https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q8789)
- standard identifiers: FIPS and NIST SP numbers, RFC numbers for algorithms and protocols
Direct properties not applicable Not applicable
Not applicable
Plane INF: no invented physical properties.
Recognition optional Filled
- Mathematical techniques for security against adversaries
- Symmetric, asymmetric and hash primitives
- Cryptocurrency mining and cybersecurity in general are related but distinct
- Not visible; algorithms and protocols in software and hardware.
Capabilities and actions required Filled
- explain concepts and building blocks
- relay standards and recommendations
- distinguish cryptography from cryptanalysis, coding and steganography
- route implementation choices to standards and experts
Hazards and failure modes required Filled
- Home-made or misused algorithms
- Weak keys and poor randomness
- Deprecated algorithms still in use
- Agents advising on operational attacks or bypassing protections
Standards and interfaces required Filled
- NIST FIPS and SP 800 series
- IETF RFCs for protocols such as TLS
- ISO/IEC 18033 and related standards
- Export control rules and national encryption laws
Context of use required Filled
- Confidentiality, integrity, authentication and non-repudiation of information.
- symmetric encryption
- public key cryptography and digital signatures
- hash functions and message authentication
- cryptographic protocols such as TLS
- post-quantum cryptography
- applied areas such as white-box cryptography and cryptovirology as research topics
Sources Filled
- Wikidata item Q8789: cryptography - identity and sense of the item
- Wikipedia: Cryptography - general description of the item
Open questions
- Should each primitive be a separate entry?
- How should standards be linked by version?
- The registry entry has merged aliases for cryptocurrency mining and research subfields; should they be split off?
Machine files
Provenance
thing registry research (pass 2) · unreviewed
Built from: models/things/publications/thing-q8789/spec.json