So what does cryptography mean?

cryptography:
It is the study of encryption, the art/science to create and use codes and/or ciphers with the purpose of enciphering as well as deciphering.
After a relatively vivid but slow development of cryptography for nearly 4.000 years the inventions of the telegraph, radio and computer had a high impact on the velocity of further inventions concerning encryption.
Most of the time economic, political or military reasons lie behind the necessity of encryption. As visible from the timetable cryptography it is also done for private and individual interests. An extraordinary example for this is the Braille Code, developed as a possibility for blind people to read and write.
A lot of very interesting and intelligent websites about cryptography can be found in the Internet.Some websites offering links to various cryptography-websites are:
http://www.ciia.org/links.htm
http://www.isse.gmu.edu/~njohnson/Security/stegres.htm
http://www.hack.gr/users/dij/crypto/links.html
http://www.achiever.com/freehmpg/cryptology/lessons.html
http://www.iks-jena.de/mitarb/lutz/security/links.html
http://world.std.com/~franl/crypto/
http://home.tu-clausthal.de/~inas/Links.html
http://theory.lcs.mit.edu/~rivest/crypto-security.html
http://www.britannica.com/bcom/eb/article/xref/0,5716,5453,00.html
http://www-personal.umich.edu/~rak/web_sites.html

Further there exists a wide range of web-magazines/newsletters/mailing lists on cryptography, e.g.:
Crypto-Gram Newsletter: http://www.counterpane.com/crypto-gram.html
Journal of Computer Security: http://www.gocsi.com/m_form.htm
Cypherpunks: http://www.inet-one.com/cypherpunks/
Stegano-L: http://www.thur.de/ulf/stegano/sub.html
ZD Internet Magazine: http://www.zdnet.com/

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Clipper Chip

The Clipper Chip is a cryptographic device proposed by the U.S. government that purportedly intended to protect private communications while at the same time permitting government agents to obtain the "keys" upon presentation of what has been vaguely characterized as "legal authorization." The "keys" are held by two government "escrow agents" and would enable the government to access the encrypted private communication. While Clipper would be used to encrypt voice transmissions, a similar chip known as Capstone
would be used to encrypt data. The underlying cryptographic algorithm, known as Skipjack, was developed by the National Security Agency (NSA).

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