































Global Online Journal of Academic Research (GOJAR), Vol. 2, No. 3 May-June 2023


Global Online Journal of Academic Research (GOJAR), Vol. 2, No. 3 May-June 2023 

 

 

33 
 

 

Applications of Information Cryptography in Its Various 

Stages of Evolution, from Antiquity to the Modern Era 

 

By  

Nnaemeka Uchenna Ezeonyi, Obikwelu Raphael Okonkwo & 

Obinna Arthur Enweka 

 

 

Abstract 

Communication is a daily activity. Information needs to be move from a sender to a 

receiver, for a communication to hold. However, there are information or messages that 

should be kept secret and does not require knowledge of a third party. Such messages 

are encrypted or coded into a cipher text, so as to make no meaning to a third party who 

may eventually intercept it. This coding of information is called Encryption, while 

Decryption is the reverse of encryption. Thus, Cryptography is the process of 

encryption of plain texts and decryption of cipher texts. Cryptography began in early 

civilizations of Hebrew, Egypt, and Rome with the Atbash, Hieroglyph and Ceaser’s 

Ciphers respectively. This period is regarded as the “Antiquity”. Cryptography later 

evolved into Classic Cryptography, in the Middle Ages, where the “Key Model” and 

“Cryptanalysis” or code-breaking were introduced. Furthermore, Cryptography evolved 

to “Field Ciphers” and “Tele-Printer Ciphers” during the World War I. Moreover, the 

World War II saw the evolution of cryptography into various “Cipher Machines”. In 

modern times, cryptography evolved into sophisticated mathematical equations called 

“Algorithms”, for encrypting and decrypting messages. At these various evolution 

stages, cryptography is seen to be applied in civil communications, wars, cryptanalysis 

and e-commerce. 

Keywords: cryptography, cryptanalysis, ciphers, encryption, decryption, data. 

 

 

1.0 Introduction 

Cryptography is a method of protecting information and communications 

through the use of codes, so that only those for whom the information is 

intended can read and process it (Richards, 2021).Cryptography is one of 

the techniques used to ensure secure transmission of information via a 



Global Online Journal of Academic Research (GOJAR), Vol. 2, No. 3 May-June 2023 

 

 

34 
 

channel between a pair of communicators. This prevents third parties 

from being acquainted with the data in transit (Peralta et al, 

2014).Cryptography is a Greek word that means ‘secret writing’. 

Cryptography is the science of both encryption and decryption. 

Encryption is the process of encoding a message in such a way as to hide 

its contents. A plain or normal text sent over the network is converted 

into cipher text so that the information can only be used by the sender 

and the receiver (Krishna and Manikandan, 2020). The reverse process of 

encryption is called Decryption. It is the process of converting Cipher 

Text into Plain Text. Cryptographers use the decryption algorithms at the 

receiver side to obtain the original message from non-readable message 

i.e. Cipher Text (Naser, 2021). However, from ancient times till this 

modern times, several cryptographic techniques have been invented. This 

study presents cryptography in different era and are treated in the 

following order: 

 Cryptography in the Antiquity 

 Cryptography in the Middle Ages (Classical Cryptography) 

 Cryptography in the World War I 

 Cryptography in the World War II 

 Modern Cryptography 

2.0 Main Body 

2.1 Cryptography in Antiquity 

Antiquity is any period before the European Middle Ages (5th to 15th 

centuries) but still within the history of Western civilization ("Antiquity", 

2023). According to Naser (2021), from the beginning of civilization 

when people started to live in different tribes or groups, each of them got 

the idea to be more powerful than others and to rule other tribes. So they 

feel for a secure and secret communication and thus how the process of 

primary cryptography was introduced. Hebrew scholars made use of 

simple mono-alphabetic substitution ciphers (such as the Atbash cipher) 

beginning perhaps around 600 to 500 BC ("Antiquity", 2023). Early 

civilizations in Egypt, Greece, and Rome adopted encryption for 

communication. Nearly 1900 B.C. (2000 B.C.), in ancient Egypt, a non-

standard encryption was utilized on hidden “hieroglyphics” engraved on 

stone—the earliest known instance of cryptography—to conceal the 

meanings from those who did not know them, and for the amusement 

(Naser, 2021).By later periods of antiquity, cryptography was widely 



Global Online Journal of Academic Research (GOJAR), Vol. 2, No. 3 May-June 2023 

 

 

35 
 

used to protect important military information, a purpose that it still 

serves to this day. A prominent example of Roman cryptography, known 

as the Caesar cipher, involved shifting the letters of an encrypted 

message by a certain number of places down the Latin alphabet. 

Knowing this system and the number of places to shift the letters, a 

recipient could successfully decode the otherwise illegible message. 

 

Figure 1: Hieroglyph (First techniques of Cryptography) (Hashmi and 

Choubey, 2018). 

Below is a summary of the cryptographic techniques in Antiquity. 

 

2.2 Cryptography in the Middle Ages (Classic Cryptography) 

According to Hashmi and Choubey (2018), around 500 – 600 BC, 

Cryptography became popular, so encryption followed these methods: 

- Substitution 



Global Online Journal of Academic Research (GOJAR), Vol. 2, No. 3 May-June 2023 

 

 

36 
 

- Transposition 

- Codes 

- Additionally, Cryptanalysis began in the Medieval ("History of 

Cryptography", 2023) 

2.2.1 Substitution cryptographic method 

This was the first cipher method which makes use of key model. 

Therefore, it can be called a ‘Substitution Cipher’. Key means replacing 

alphabet to other alphabet for some secret rule. This rule becomes called 

a key (Abbasi and Singh, 2021). 

There are Two (2) applications of substitution method. 

i. Mono-Alphabetic Cipher 

According to Aung et al. (2019), in Mono-Alphabetic substitution, a 

character (or a symbol) in the plain text is always changed to the same 

character (or a symbol) in the cipher text regardless of its position in the 

text (Aung et al., 2019).Examples are: Additive cipher, Shift cipher, 

Caesar cipher, Multiplicative cipher, Affine cipher, etc. 

 

Figure 2: A Mono-Alphabetic Substitution Cipher (Hashmi and Choubey, 2018) 

ii. Poly-Alphabetic Cipher 

In Poly-Alphabetic substitution, each occurrence of a character may have 

a different substitute. (Aung et al., 2019). Examples of Poly-Alphabetic 

ciphers are: Vigenère cipher, Autokey cipher, Playfair cipher, Beaufort 

cipher, Running key cipher, Porta cipher, Hill cipher, One-Time pad, 

Rotor cipher, etc. 

2.2.2 Transposition cryptographic method 

According to Twum et al (2019), transposition ciphers shuffles characters 

around, instead of substituting them with other characters, as in the 

Substitution Method treated earlier. A transposition cipher is one which 

rearranges the order of the letters in the cipher text (encoded text), 



Global Online Journal of Academic Research (GOJAR), Vol. 2, No. 3 May-June 2023 

 

 

37 
 

according to some predetermined method, without making any 

substitutions (Nrich, 2018). 

 

Plain Text: ENEMY TANKS APPROACHING HILL EIGHT SIX THREE 

STOP 

Cipher Text: ENOHH RNKAI TEESC LSEMA HLISY PIEXT TPNIT 

OARGG HPXXX 

Figure 3: A Simple Columnar Transposition Cipher (UMich, 2018). 

2.2.3 Codebook cryptographic method 

Codebook makes use of codes to replace a word or a phrase. Using Code, 

it was a good way to obfuscate meaning if the message is small and the 

codebooks are safe (Hashmi and Choubey, 2018). 

 

Figure 4: A Codebook Cipher Method (Hashmi and Choubey, 2018) 

2.2.4 Cryptanalysis 

Frequency Analysis technique was designed by Al-Kindi, an Arab 

mathematician, for breaking mono-alphabetic substitution ciphers. This 

was around AD 800, in the medieval ("History of Cryptography", 2023). 

Cryptanalysis means trying to break any security system (or cipher) by 

using unauthorized ways to access the information in that system. Thus, 

cryptanalysis works against cryptography. The cryptanalyst tries to find 

any weakness in the cryptographic system to get either the source of 

information (plaintext) or the key used in the encryption algorithm (Al-

Janabi, Al-Khateeb and Abd, 2017). The objective of cryptanalyst is to 

be able to decrypt cipher text (Tiwari, Nandi and Mishra, 2013). In the 

modern era, among several instances, Brute-force key-space search has 

broken some real-world ciphers and applications, including single-



Global Online Journal of Academic Research (GOJAR), Vol. 2, No. 3 May-June 2023 

 

 

38 
 

DES, 40-bit "export-strength" cryptography, and the DVD Content 

Scrambling System. In 2008, researchers conducted a proof-of-concept 

break of SSL using weaknesses in the MD5 hash function and certificate 

issuer practices that made it possible to exploit collision attacks on hash 

functions ("Cryptanalysis", 2023). In World War II, the Allies benefitted 

enormously from their joint success cryptanalysis of the German ciphers 

– including the Enigma machine and the Lorenz cipher – and Japanese 

ciphers, particularly 'Purple' and JN-25. In World War II, the Enigma 

cipher system was broken by Polish and British cryptographers. 

("Cryptanalysis", 2023). Below is a summary of cryptographies used in 

the medieval period. 

 

2.3 Cryptography in the World War 1 

According to Cthaeh (2021), Radio was invented at the very end of the 

18th century and World War I and became the first big war in which it 

was used. Naturally, making communications more effective also 

increased communication traffic by several orders of magnitude.World 

War I has a timeline from 28th July, 1914 to 11th November, 1918 (Ray, 

2018). According to Cthaeh (2021), World War I is the second largest 

military conflict in history, surpassed only by World War II. The war was 

fought between two camps — the Central Powers and the Allied 

Powers — and lasted until late 1918. The main participants on the side of 

the Central Powers were Germany, Austria-Hungary, the Ottoman 

Empire, and Bulgaria. On the side of the Allied Powers were France, 

Britain, Russia, and Italy. Many other countries joined the conflict at 

different stages (including the United States on the side of the Allied 

Powers). The invention of the electric telegraph increased the traffic of 

messages dramatically. Messages could now travel through electric wires 

close to the speed of light. 



Global Online Journal of Academic Research (GOJAR), Vol. 2, No. 3 May-June 2023 

 

 

39 
 

2.3.1 Standard codes used in World War I 

Cthaeh (2021) stated that the most common use of codes was for naval, 

diplomatic, and strategic communication. In general, using codes is more 

cumbersome compared to ciphers, since the encoding/decoding process is 

significantly slower and the secure distribution of codebooks is always a 

challenging task, especially when the communicating parties are 

constantly on the move. On the other hand, these codes were considered 

far more secure than ciphers. That’s why they were preferred for 

communication that required absolute secrecy. 

Trench Codes: These were less sophisticated codes with a much smaller 

vocabulary of up to only a few thousand words, used by armies inside 

trenches. They were less secure but easier to distribute. The lower 

security wasn’t necessarily a serious issue. Even if the enemy managed to 

break the code for a particular message, it wouldn’t matter too much 

unless they break it fast enough. The situation on the battlefield is 

changing quickly and old information becomes useless very fast (Cthaeh, 

2021). 

2.3.2 Field ciphers used in World War I 

i. Playfair (British): The Playfair cipher system was widely used by 

American army and English Army during the World War I (Shang & Lu, 

2012).The British used it for tactical communication. Later on, the 

Americans picked it up too when they joined the war (Cthaeh, 2021).  

ii. Interrupted Columnar Transposition (French): The French used 

the interrupted columnar transposition cipher for very similar purposes to 

the British’s use of the Playfair cipher (tactical communication on the 

battlefield) (Cthaeh, 2021).  

iii. Turning Grilles Cipher (German): This is a pure transposition 

cipher that uses a square made up of smaller squares. Crucially, there 

were holes at the positions of a quarter of the smaller squares. The 

Germans used squares of different sizes, depending on the length of the 

message they wanted to send (like 7×7 or 10×10), always removing a 

quarter of the small squares (Cthaeh, 2021).  

iv. ADFGX and ADFGVX cipher (German): The cipher’s name 

initially was ADFGX and shortly after it became ADFGVX, after a 

small modification. However, the ADFGVX modification doesn’t change 

the nature of the cipher. Germany introduced it in early 1918 and used it 

for communications between divisions, corps, and army headquarters 

during the Spring Offensive I told you about earlier (Cthaeh, 2021). 



Global Online Journal of Academic Research (GOJAR), Vol. 2, No. 3 May-June 2023 

 

 

40 
 

v. Vigenere Cipher (Russia): Ernst Fetterlein was in the Tsarist Russian 

Ministry of Foreign Affairs from 1896 and solved (among others) 

German, Austrian and British codes. He became chief cryptographer with 

the rank of admiral. The Russians used an overcomplicated version of 

the Vigenère Cipher. It was broken within three days by Austro-

Hungarian cryptanalyst Hermann Pokorny (Cthaeh, 2021). 

2.3.3 Tele-printer ciphers used in World War I 

In 1917, Gilbert Vernam proposed a tele-printer cipher in which a 

previously prepared key, kept on paper tape, is combined character by 

character with the plaintext message to produce the cypher text. This led 

to the development of electromechanical devices as cipher machines, and 

to the only unbreakable cipher, the One-Time pad (Rijmenants, 2022). 

One-Time Pad 

To perform one-time pad encryption, we need a key, called one-time pad. 

A one-time pad can be a single sheet, a booklet or a strip or roll of paper 

tape that contains series of truly random digits. A one-time pad set 

consists of two identical one-time pads, one pad called OUT and one 

called IN. To establish one-way communications, you only need one 

OUT pad for the sender and an identical copy called IN pad for the 

receiver. To communicate in both ways, you need two different one-time 

pad sets: person A has an OUT pad of which person B has the IN copy, 

and person B has another OUT pad of which person A has the IN copy 

(Rijmenants, 2022). Below is a summary of cryptography used in the 

World War 1 

 

 



Global Online Journal of Academic Research (GOJAR), Vol. 2, No. 3 May-June 2023 

 

 

41 
 

2.4 Cryptography in the World War II 

By World War II, mechanical and electromechanical cipher 

machines were in wide use (“History of cryptography”, 2023). The 

World War II has a timeline from 1939 to 1945. The 

principal belligerents were the Axis powers—Germany, Italy, and Japan 

—and the Allies—France, Great Britain, the United States, the Soviet 

Union, and, to a lesser extent, China (Hughes and Royde-Smith, 2023). 

In the 1920s, various mechanical encryption deviceswere invented to 

automate the process of encryption. Most were based on the concept of a 

rotor, a mechanical wheel wired to perform a general substitution 

(Sokouti, Sokouti and Pashazadeh, 2009).  

2.4.1 Cipher machines used in World War II 

Enigma (Germany): As complicated as the Enigma was, it was broken 

during World War II. First, a team of Polish cryptographers broke the 

German Enigma and explained their attack to the British. The Germans 

modified their Enigma as the war progressed, and the British continued 

to cryptanalyze the new versions (Sokouti, Sokouti and Pashazadeh, 

2009).  

 

Fig 5: The German Enigma (“History of cryptography”, 2023) 

Purple (Japan): In the early 1930s, the Japanese government purchased 

the commercial version of the Enigma machine from the German 

government in order to build an enhanced version of it. This 

cryptographic machine was named ‘‘Red” by the US government. Soon 

after the ‘‘Red” cipher was broken by the U.S.A, the Japanese 

government created a more evolved and secure cipher known as ‘‘97-

shiki O-bun In-ji-ki” or ‘‘97 Alphabetical Typewriter”, named for its 

creation on the Japanese year 2597 in 1937. The US later named it as 

Purple. Unlike the Enigma machine, which used the blinking lights to 

represent the message, Purple used an electric typewriter, which could 



Global Online Journal of Academic Research (GOJAR), Vol. 2, No. 3 May-June 2023 

 

 

42 
 

write the message on paper. This was easy to use than the Enigma 

machine. However, it was heavy and tedious to carry in combat areas. It 

was a complex machine used to encrypt data not only in the 1930s, but 

even today. It falls under the category of homophonic substitution 

ciphers, where a single plaintext letter can be replaced by any of the 

different cipher text letters. (Shikhare, 2015). 

 

Fig 6: The Japanese ‘Purple’(Shikhare, 2015) 

Typex (Britain): After the World War I, the British government in 1926, 

established the Inter-Departmental Cipher Committee to explore possible 

cipher machines to replace their current book cipher systems. In 1935, 

the Committee decided upon “Enigma type cipher machines improved 

through the use of ‘Type X’ attachments” or Typex. The Typex machine, 

developed by Wing Commander O.G.W. Lywood, was such a close 

relative of the Enigma machine that the British use Typex machines in 

place of Enigma when trying to decipher Enigma messages. When 

German soldiers recovered a Typex machine sans rotors, they 

successfully converted it into an Enigma machine. This similarity 

discouraged German cryptanalysts from attempting to cryptanalyze 

Typex enciphered messages because they believed Enigma to be 

unbreakable (Chang, 2012). 

 

                                                       Fig 7: The British ‘Typex’ (Chang, 2012). 



Global Online Journal of Academic Research (GOJAR), Vol. 2, No. 3 May-June 2023 

 

 

43 
 

 

Sigaba (USA): SIGABA is a cipher machine used during World War II 

until the 1950s. It takes a shot at the electromechanical arrangement of 

rotors (Pal, Datta and Karmakar, 2020). In the 1930s, the U.S. Army 

cryptologist William Friedman and his assistant Frank Rowlett drew on 

this simple precept to conceive a cipher machine that was easy to use, 

simple to rekey, and ostensibly impossible to break. To the Army it was 

known as SIGABA, to the Navy, ECM (Electric Cipher Machine) II. Not 

only was SIGABA the most secure cipher machine of World War II, but 

it went on to provide yeoman service for decades thereafter (Mucklow, 

2015) 

 

Fig 8: The USA ‘SIGABA’ (Mucklow, 2015) 

Below is a summary of cryptography used in the world war II. 

 

 



Global Online Journal of Academic Research (GOJAR), Vol. 2, No. 3 May-June 2023 

 

 

44 
 

 

2.5 Modern Cryptography 

Around 1990, the use of the Internet for commercial purposes, the 

introduction of online commercial transactions and as wireless networks 

became more common among households, the need for encryption grew, 

as a level of security was needed in these everyday situations ("History of 

Cryptography", 2023). Adomey (2020) explained three (3) types of 

Cryptography: 

i. Secret (Symmetric) Key Cryptography 

ii. Public (Asymmetric) Key Cryptography 

iii. Hash Functions 

iv. Hybrid Cryptography (additional) 

2.5.1 Secret (Symmetric) key cryptography 

The Symmetric Key Cryptography is also known as Secret Key 

Cryptography or Conventional Cryptography. The Symmetric Key 

Cryptography is an encryption system in which the sender and receiver of 

a message share a single, common key used to encrypt and decrypt the 

message. It uses an algorithm called Secret Key Algorithm or Symmetric 

Algorithm (Adomey, 2020). 

 

Figure 9: Symmetric Key Cryptography (Adomey, 2020) 

Some examples of popular Symmetric Key Cryptography are: DES – 

Data Encryption Standard, Triple-DES, AES – Advanced Encryption 

System, Rivest Cipher 4 (RC4). 

2.5.2 Public (asymmetric) key cryptography 

According to Adomey (2020), Asymmetric cryptography, also known as 

Public-key cryptography, refers to a cryptographic algorithm which 



Global Online Journal of Academic Research (GOJAR), Vol. 2, No. 3 May-June 2023 

 

 

45 
 

requires two separate keys, one of which is private and one of which is 

public. The public key encrypts the message while the private key 

decrypts the encrypted message. Public Key Cryptography is a very 

advanced form of cryptography. Officially, Whitfield Diffie and Martin 

Hellman invented it in 1975. The British Clifford Cocks of 

Communications-Electronics Security Group (CESG) of (Government 

Communications Headquarters - GCHQ) first discovered the basic 

technique of public key cryptography in 1973 but this was a secret until 

1997. The figure below depicts a public key cryptography. 

 

Figure 10: Public (Asymmetric) Key Cryptography (Adomey, 2020) 

Some examples of asymmetric cryptography are: Rivest-Shamir-

Adleman (RSA) Algorithm, Digital Signature Standard, EIGamal, etc. 

2.5.3 Hash functions 

According to Kundu and Dutta (2020), hash functions refer to a function 

that compresses a string of arbitrary input to a string of fixed length. In 

other words, we get a fixed-length message digest out of a variable-

length message. Compared to the message the digest is normally much 

smaller. The main purpose of hashing is related with message security 

like protecting message integrity, authenticity, etc. Wahome (2021) 

further explained that using hash functions for cryptography refers to 

cryptographic hash function. He continued that all cryptographic hash 

functions are hash functions, but not all hash functions are cryptographic 

hash functions. Mathematically, Wahome classified cryptographic hash 

functions into two classes: 

 Unkeyed hash functions also known Manipulation Detection 

Code (MDC) or Message Authentication Code (MAC) with a 

single parameter, an input message. 

 Keyed hash functions with two distinct input, an input message 

and a secret key. 

Wahome (2021) also listed the examples of cryptographic hash functions 



Global Online Journal of Academic Research (GOJAR), Vol. 2, No. 3 May-June 2023 

 

 

46 
 

as follows: 

 The Secured Hash Algorithm (SHA) family - They are six hash 

functions: SHA -0, SHA – 1, SHA – 224, SHA – 256, SHA – 

384 and SHA – 512. The first four operate on 512-bit message 

blocks divided into 32-bit words and the last two on 1024-bit 

blocks divided into 64-bit words. Bitcoin, the original and 

largest cryptocurrency (at the time of writing), uses the SHA-

256 hash function. 

 The MD (Message Digest) family — comprises of MD2, 

MD4, MD5 and MD6 authored by Ronald Rivest for RSA 

security and was adopted as the Internet Standard RFC 1321. 

 RIPEMD (RACE Integrity Primitives Evaluation Message 

Digest) — a family of cryptographic hash functions based upon 

the design principles used in MD4 developed by Hans 

Dobbertin, Antoon Bosselaers, and Bart Preneel at the COSIC 

research group at the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven. 

RIPEMD-160 produces a hash digest of 160 bits (20 bytes). 

 Whirlpool — designed by Vincent Rijmen and Paulo S. L. M. 

Barreto, this hash function based on a substantially modified 

version of the Advanced Encryption Standard (AES). 

Whirlpool produces a hash digest of 512 bits (64 bytes). 

 BLAKE — a hash function submitted to the NIST hash 

function competition by Jean-Philippe Aumasson, Luca 

Henzen, Willi Meier, and Raphael C.-W. Phan. It is based on 

Dan Bernstein’s ChaCha stream cipher, but a permuted copy of 

the input block, XORed with round constants, is added before 

each ChaCha round. 

 Curl-P — a hash function formerly used in IOTA Signature 

Scheme (ISS). IOTA is a cryptocurrency designed for use with 

the Internet of Things (IoT) and automotive ecosystems. ISS is 

based on Winternitz One-Time Signatures but unlike traditional 

Winternitz, in IOTA users sign the hash of a message. Thus, 

the security of ISS relies on its cryptographic hash function, 

which was Curl-P-27. 

2.5.4 Hybrid cryptographic systems 

Hybrid cryptography means combining two or more cryptosystems. 

There are benefits and limitations in both symmetric and asymmetric 



Global Online Journal of Academic Research (GOJAR), Vol. 2, No. 3 May-June 2023 

 

 

47 
 

ciphers. Symmetric ciphers are fast but suffer key exchanging. 

Asymmetric ciphers solve the key exchange problem, in other words 

secure, but slow. Practically, hybrid cryptography, which is an 

integration of symmetric and asymmetric ciphers, makes use of the 

efficiency of symmetric ciphers and the simplicity and security of 

asymmetric ciphers (Murad and Rahouma, 2021b). 

2.5.4.1 Approaches to hybrid cryptography 

In this study, three (3) approaches to hybrid cryptography were studied: 

Double Encryption (of Symmetric or Asymmetric) 

The first approach, according Murad and Rahouma (2021a), involves 

performing two layers of symmetric or asymmetric encryption. Here, 

data is double encrypted by applying two consecutive, either symmetric 

or asymmetric ciphers in a row. See figure below. 

 

Figure 11: Hybrid scheme uses double encryption of either symmetric ciphers 

or asymmetric ciphers for data encryption (Murad and Rahouma, 2021a) 

Symmetric / Asymmetric Hybrid Cryptography 

As shown in the next figure below, this approach utilizes a symmetric 

algorithm to encrypt the data and applies an asymmetric algorithm to 

encrypt the secret key. See figure below. 

 

Figure 12: Hybrid scheme uses symmetric ciphers for data encryption and 

asymmetric ciphers for key encryption (Murad and Rahouma, 2021a) 

Cryptography with other Supportive Methods (i.e. with other 

technologies) 

To further strengthen cryptography, researchers have presented schemes 



Global Online Journal of Academic Research (GOJAR), Vol. 2, No. 3 May-June 2023 

 

 

48 
 

where supportive methods were used to improve cryptography security 

level. Examples of such supportive methods are: 

- Hybrid cryptography and steganography method to embed 

encrypted text message within image (Jassim, et al., 2019) 

- A hybrid scheme of cryptography and watermarking (Kaur and 

Kaur, 2016) 

- A hybrid cryptographic technique using RSA algorithm and 

scheduling concepts (Shankar and Akshaya, 2014) 

These supportive methods are applied to increase the strength of a 

symmetric / asymmetric hybrid algorithm.  

Below is a summary of cryptography used in the modern era. 

 

3.0 Conclusion 

Based on the above reviews, cryptography has evolved in so many ways 

and is still evolving. It has been found to be applied in the following 

ways: 



Global Online Journal of Academic Research (GOJAR), Vol. 2, No. 3 May-June 2023 

 

 

49 
 

i. Civil Communication 

Cryptography is applied in encrypting messages in civil communications 

or messages between two regular individuals or organizations. Starting 

from antiquity, through the medieval, and through the world wars, and in 

the modern era, messages can be encrypted to ensure confidentiality. 

Emails are usually encrypted in order to keep them confidential. As 

messages travel through communication links, both wired and wireless, 

they are often encrypted. 

ii. Cryptanalysis 

Cryptanalysis is as an application of cryptography, though as a reverse 

process. Cryptanalysis began in the Medieval period. This is because 

classical cryptography began in this era, with the introduction of keys-

based cryptography or ciphers. The medieval period cryptographic 

methods and those used in the world wars were at a point in time broken. 

In this modern era, cryptographic systems are not easily broken, because, 

they cannot be solved by hand. However, the One-Time-Pad is a Tele-

Printer Cipher which has never been broken. 

iii. Wars 

In antiquity, Hieroglyphs were used to encrypt messages between 

soldiers. Cryptography in wars was mostly applied in the World War I 

and in the World War II. Cryptography is very essential during wars 

since each army group needs to frequently send messages to their 

colleagues in case of a need of unfavorable circumstances like need for 

back-up, need for a retreat, need for change of plans or change of 

direction, need for supply of more ammunitions. The message must be 

confidential, otherwise the enemy camp will know their plans and move 

ahead of them. 

iv. E-Commerce 

Cryptography is very important and is carefully applied for commercial 

purposes. Encryption keeps your data secure when you're shopping or 

banking online. It scrambles data like your credit card details and home 

address to ensure hackers can't misuse this information. Cryptography in 

e-commerce ensures data privacy. 

References 

Abbasi, F. and Singh, P. (2021). Cryptography: Security and integrity of 

data management. Journal of Management and Service 

Science,1(2), 1 – 9. 



Global Online Journal of Academic Research (GOJAR), Vol. 2, No. 3 May-June 2023 

 

 

50 
 

 

Adomey, M.K.G. (2020). Introduction to Cryptography [PowerPoint 

Slides]. Retrieved from https://www.itu.int/en/ITU-

D/Cybersecurity/ Documents/01-Introduction%20to%20Crypto 

graphy.pdf, on 30 August 2021. 
 

Al-Janabi, S.T., Al-Khateeb, B. and Abd, A.J. (2017). Intelligent 

techniques in cryptanalysis: Review and future directions. UHD 

Journal of Science and Technology, 1(1), 1 – 10. 
 

Antiquity. (2023, April 6). In Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ 

Antiquity 
 

Aung, T. M., Naing, H. H. and Hla, N. N. (2019). A complex transforma 

tion of mono-alphabetic cipher to poly-alphabetic 

cipher: (Vigenère-Affine Cipher). International Journal of

 Machine Language and Computing, 9 (3), 296 – 303.  

Chang, K. (2012). Cryptanalysis of Typex [Master's thesis, San Jose State 

University]. https://www.cryptomuseum.com/crypto/uk/typex/files 

/kelly.pdf 

Cthaeh (2021, May 10). Cryptography During World War I. Retrieved 

May 24, 2023, from https://www.probabilisticworld.com/ 

cryptography-during-world-war-i/ 

Hashmi, A. and Choubey, R. (2018). Cryptographic Techniques in 

Information Security. International Journal of Scientific Research 

in Computer Science,  Engineering and Information Technology, 

3(1), 854 – 859. 

History of cryptography. (2023, May 22). In Wikipedia. https://en. 

wikipedia.org/wiki/ History_of_cryptography 
 

Hughes, T. A. and Royde-Smith, J. G. (2023, May 23). World War II. 

Encyclopedia Britannica. https://www.britannica.com/event/World-

War-II 
 

Jassim, K.N., Nsaif, A.K., Nseaf, A.K., Hazidar, A.H., Priambodo, B., 

Naf'an, E., Masril, M., Handriani, I. and Putra, Z.P. (2019). 

Hybrid cryptography and steganography  method to embed 

encrypted text message within image. In 2019 Journal of Physics:

 Conference Series, Volume 1339, International Conference

 Computer Science and Engineering, 26 – 27th April 2019, Padang 

Indonesia: IOP Publishing, 1 – 9. 
 

Kaur A. and Kaur R. (2016). A hybrid scheme for cryptography and 

watermarking. International Journal of Advanced Research in 

Computer and Communication Engineering, 5(7), 183 – 188. 
 



Global Online Journal of Academic Research (GOJAR), Vol. 2, No. 3 May-June 2023 

 

 

51 
 

Krishna, A and Manikadan, L.C. (2020). A study on cryptographic 

techniques. International Journal of Scientific Research in 

Computer Science, Engineering and Information Technology, 

6(4), 321 – 327. 

Kundu, R. and Dutta, A. (2020). Cryptographic hash functions and 

attacks – A detailed study. International Journal of Advanced 

Research in Computer Science, 11(2), 37-44. 
 

Mucklow, T. (2015). The SIGABA / ECM II Cipher Machine: “A 

Beautiful Idea”. USA: Center for Cryptologic History. 
 

Murad, S.H., and Rahouma, K.H. (2021a). Hybrid Cryptographic 

Approach to Safeguard  Cloud Computing Services: A 

Survey. In: Hassanien, AE., Chang, KC., Mincong, T. (Eds) 

Advanced Machine Learning Technologies and Applications. 

AMLTA 2021. (pp.  785 – 793). Springer. 
 

Murad, S.H., and Rahouma, K.H. (2021b). Implementation and 

Performance Analysis of Hybrid Cryptographic Schemes 

applied in Cloud Computing Environment. Procedia Computer 

Science, 194(2021), 165 – 172. 
 

Naser, S. M. (2021). Cryptography: From the ancient history to now, it’s 

applications and a new complete numerical model. International 

Journal of Mathematics and Statistics Studies, 9(3), 11-30. 
 

Nrich (2018), Transposition Cipher [PowerPoint Slides]. Retrieved from 

https://nrich.maths.org/7940, on 25 August 2021. 

Pal, S.K., Datta, B. and Karmakar, A. (2020). Cryptography and network 

security: a historical transformation. SCHOLEDGE International 

Journal of Multidisciplinary and Allied Study, 7(2), 30 – 44.  
 

Peralta, D., Triguero, I., Sanchez-Reillo, R., Herrera, F. (2014). Fast 

fingerprint identification for large databases. ACM Digital Library, 

47(2), 588 – 602. 
 

Richards, K. (2021, September 1). Cryptography. Techtarget. Retrieved 

June 10, 2023, from https://www.techtarget.com/searchsecurity/ 

definition/cryptography 

Rijmenants, D. (2022). The complete guide to secure communications 

with the one-time pad cipher. Cipher Machines and Cryptology, 1 – 

27. 

 

Shang, Y., & Lu, L. (2012, July 18). An extended algorithm based on 

playFair cipher [Conference presentation]. Atlantis Press. 

https://www.atlantis-press.com/article/2979.pdf 

 



Global Online Journal of Academic Research (GOJAR), Vol. 2, No. 3 May-June 2023 

 

 

52 
 

Shankar M. and Akshaya P. (2014). Hybrid cryptographic technique 

using RSA algorithm and scheduling concepts. International 

Journal of Network Security & Its Applications, 6(6), 39-48. 

 

Shikhare, A. (2015). Cryptanalysis of the Purple Cipher using Random 

Restarts (Publication No. 428) [Master's thesis, San Jose State 

University]. https://scholarworks.sjsu.edu/ etd_projects/428 

 

Sokouti, M., Sokouti, B. and Pashazadeh, S. (2009). An approach in 

improving transposition cipher system. Indian Journal of Science 

and Technology, 2(8), 9 – 15. 

 

Tiwari, G., Nandi, D. and Mishra, M. (2013). Cryptography and 

cryptanalysis: A Review. International Journal of Engineering 

Research and Technology, 2(10), 1898 – 1902. 
 

Twum, F., Acquah, J.B. and William, M. (2019). A proposed enhanced 

transposition cipher algorithm based on Rubik’s Cube 

transformations. International Journal of Computer Applications, 

182 (35), 18 – 26. 
 

Umich (2018). Transposition Systems [PowerPoint Slides]. Retrieved 

from http://websites.umich.edu/~umich/fm-34-40-2/ch11.pdf, on 

25 August 2021. 
 

Wahome M. (2021). Cryptographic Hash Functions. 1-9. Retrieved from 

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/351837904_Cryptographi

c_Hash_Functions, on 07 October, 2021.  

  

 

 

Author Information: Nnaemeka Uchenna Ezeonyi is System 

Analyst, University Library, Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu 

Universty, Igbariam, Anambra State, Nigeria.  

Email: nu.ezeonyi@gmail.com. 

 

 

Obikwelu Raphael Okonkwo is of the Department of Computer 

Science, Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Awka, Anambra State. 

Email: ro.okonkwo@unizik.edu.ng. 

 

 

Obinna Arthur Enweka is affiliated to Department of Computer 

Science, Federal Cooperate College, Oji River, Enugu State, 

Nigeria. Email: enweka.arthur@gmail.com. 

 

 

 

 


