Cryptography is no longer confined to academic theory or niche security tools. It underpins everyday software systems, from secure messaging and cloud services to authentication, payments, and distributed networks. Modern applications rely on cryptographic primitives to establish trust, protect data, and authorize actions without exposing sensitive information.
Understanding how cryptography is applied in real systems requires moving beyond definitions and examining how these mechanisms operate in practice, where design trade-offs, performance constraints, and human behavior all play a role.
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