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In cryptography, a cipher (or cypher) is an algorithm for performing encryption or decryption —a series of well-defined steps that can be followed as a procedure. An alternative, less common term is encipherment. To encipher or encode is to convert information into cipher or code. In common parlance, "cipher" is synonymous with "code", as ...
Classical cipher. In cryptography, a classical cipher is a type of cipher that was used historically but for the most part, has fallen into disuse. In contrast to modern cryptographic algorithms, most classical ciphers can be practically computed and solved by hand. However, they are also usually very simple to break with modern technology.
However, in cryptography, code has a more specific meaning: the replacement of a unit of plaintext (i.e., a meaningful word or phrase) with a code word (for example, "wallaby" replaces "attack at dawn"). A cypher, in contrast, is a scheme for changing or substituting an element below such a level (a letter, a syllable, or a pair of letters, etc ...
Caesar cipher. The action of a Caesar cipher is to replace each plaintext letter with a different one a fixed number of places down the alphabet. The cipher illustrated here uses a left shift of 3, so that (for example) each occurrence of E in the plaintext becomes B in the ciphertext. In cryptography, a Caesar cipher, also known as Caesar's ...
The book cipher is a type of homophonic cipher, one example being the Beale ciphers. This is a story of buried treasure that was described in 1819–21 by use of a ciphered text that was keyed to the Declaration of Independence. Here each ciphertext character was represented by a number.
Copiale cipher: Solved in 2011 1843 "The Gold-Bug" cryptogram by Edgar Allan Poe: Solved (solution given within the short story) 1882 Debosnys cipher: Unsolved 1885 Beale ciphers: Partially solved (1 out of the 3 ciphertexts solved between 1845–1885) 1897 Dorabella Cipher: Unsolved 1903 "The Adventure of the Dancing Men" code by Arthur Conan ...
Ciphertext is also known as encrypted or encoded information because it contains a form of the original plaintext that is unreadable by a human or computer without the proper cipher to decrypt it. This process prevents the loss of sensitive information via hacking. Decryption, the inverse of encryption, is the process of turning ciphertext into ...
Encryption. In cryptography, encryption is the process of transforming (more specifically, encoding) information in a way that, ideally, only authorized parties can decode. This process converts the original representation of the information, known as plaintext, into an alternative form known as ciphertext. Despite its goal, encryption does not ...