Cryptography includes a set of techniques for scrambling or disguising data so that it is available only to someone who can restore the data to its original form. In current computer systems, cryptography provides a strong, economical basis for keeping data secret and for verifying data integrity.

ICSF supports these two main types of cryptographic processes:

• Symmetric algorithms, in which the same key value is used in both the encryption and decryption calculations
• Asymmetric algorithms, in which a different key is used in the decryption calculation than was used in the encryption calculation