Cryptology vs. Cryptography vs. Cryptanalysis. What's the Difference?

Although the words cryptology, cryptography and cryptanalysis are used interchangeably — strictly speaking — they mean different things. Nowadays, we only use the word cryptography for everything; it's indeed a catch-all for a broad range of intertwined topics. Today’s post not only aims to point out the differences among them but also to show their connections to each other.

To begin with, cryptology is the mathematics, algorithms, and the applications of formulas that underpins cryptography and cryptanalysis. The world of cryptology goes from basic foundations in cryptography (code-making) to modern algebraic cryptanalysis (code-breaking). So, cryptology is clearly divided into two major parts: cryptography and cryptanalysis; with strong connections to each other, which include cryptographic applications, types of cryptography and their algorithms, code-breaking techniques, information theory, number theory and mathematical applications to encrypt data and also break ciphers.