Cryptographic locks are digital security tools that use complex mathematical algorithms to protect information. They ensure that only authorized users can access or modify data by encrypting it, making it unreadable to anyone without the correct key. This technology is widely used in various applications, including online banking and secure communications. These locks rely on cryptography, which is the practice of encoding messages to keep them safe from unauthorized access. Common types of cryptographic locks include symmetric encryption, where the same key is used for both encryption and decryption, and asymmetric encryption, which uses a pair of keys: a public key for encryption and a private key for decryption.