Cryptology, Mathematics, and Technology

Cryptology furnishes an ideal example of the synergy between mathematics and technology. This is illustrated by events before, during, and after World War II: manual methods of encryption were replaced by faster and more secure methods of machine encryption; these methods were then attacked during the war by mathematicians using a combination of mathematics and machines; and after the war machine encryption was in turn eventually supplanted by computers and computer-based encryption algorithms. Random number generation illustrates one aspect of this: physical randomization has been completely replaced by the use of pseudo-random number generators. A particularly striking example of the impact of mathematics on cryptography is the development of public key encryption.