Cryptography is the science of secure and hidden communication. It has two main components - encryption and authentication & integrity. Encryption involves hiding messages so that only the intended recipient can read them, while authentication & integrity ensures users are who they claim to be and messages are not altered. Popular symmetric encryption algorithms like DES and AES use the same key for encryption and decryption, while asymmetric algorithms like RSA use different public and private keys to encrypt and decrypt. Cryptanalysis involves analyzing and attempting to break encryption methods.