Cryptosystem

There are two different meanings of the word cryptosystem. One is used by the cryptographic community, while the other is the meaning understood by the public.In this meaning, the term cryptosystem is used as shorthand for "cryptographic system". A cryptographic system is any computer system that involves cryptography. Such systems include for instance, a system for secure electronic mail which might include methods for digital signatures, cryptographic hash functions, key management techniques, and so on. Cryptographic systems are made up of cryptographic primitives, and are usually rather complex. Because of this, breaking a cryptosystem is not restricted to breaking the underlying cryptographic algorithms - usually it is far easier to break the system as a whole, eg, through the not uncommon misconceptions of users in respect to the cryptosystem.