Cryptography is the science of securing communications and information by converting messages into an unreadable format. There are two main categories of cryptography: symmetric key cryptography which uses the same key for encryption and decryption, and asymmetric key cryptography which uses different public and private keys. Cryptography provides security goals like confidentiality, integrity, authentication, and non-repudiation through techniques like encryption, digital signatures, and access control which have various applications including defense, e-commerce, and data security.