Cryptography involves encrypting messages to provide security services like confidentiality and integrity. It uses techniques like symmetric encryption with secret keys, asymmetric encryption with public/private key pairs, digital signatures, and hash functions. The document discusses specific cryptographic algorithms and how they work, including the Data Encryption Standard (DES), Triple DES, the Advanced Encryption Standard (AES), and the Rivest-Shamir-Adelman (RSA) public-key algorithm. Cryptography is important for securely storing, transmitting, and authenticating digital information.