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Unit 1: Cracking
the code: binary
characters,
cyphers and
encryption
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 Define encryption and its
importance in data security.

Learning Explain the difference between

Objective: plaintext and ciphertext.

Recognize the main goals of

encryption: confidentiality,
integrity, and authenticity.

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Cypher: An algorithm to encrypt and decrypt data.

Encryption: The process of converting data into cyphertext so

that it can only be understood if you know the key.

Decryption: The process of converting encrypted data back

into plaintext.

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 Encryption
Encryption is the process of encoding data or a message so that it cannot be understood by anyone other
than its intended recipient.

In computer processing, encryption means that data can be stored and transmitted securely by the sending
computer to the receiving computer.

The data or message is encrypted using an encryption algorithm. The opposite of encryption is decryption.

An encryption key is a piece of information - usually random characters - used by the software algorithm
to encrypt data or a message into a form which is unreadable (encryption) and allow the data or message
to be made readable again (decryption).

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 ENCRYPTION
THROUGH TIME
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1900BC: Early cyphers are found carved
into monuments in ancient Egypt. It is
thought they are carved for fun!

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800–600BC: Ancient Greeks
use cyphers to send
messages about military
matters. They develop the
Polybius Square as a
method of sending signals
using smoke or torches.

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742BC: The ancient Greeks invent the scytale, where
messages are written on strips of paper and only make
sense if the paper is wound around a stick of the correct
length and diameter.
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Circa 50BC: Julius Caesar uses a cypher system for
all of his personal correspondence. It becomes
known as the Caesar cypher and the basic method
is still used today
.

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800–900AD: Arabic
mathematicians (such as Al-
Kindi shown here) are the first
to write down the theories of
cryptography, including all the
main methods for writing and
cracking codes.

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1467: The first ever
substitution cypher, the
Alberti Cypher, which uses
two rotating disks was
invented in Italy. The same
concept was used nearly 500
years later during the Second
World War.
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1586: Supporters of Mary Queen of
Scots use coded letters in a plot to
assassinate Elizabeth I. Elizabeth’s
spies crack the code, leading to Mary’s
execution.

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1605: The philosopher
Francis Bacon uses
steganography to create
various cyphers and other
ways of hiding messages
within text. He invents a
system for converting letters
into 5-bit codes long before
the binary system is
developed.

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 1797: Thomas Jefferson
invents a wooden
cylinder with several
wheels. The letters of the
alphabet are printed on
each wheel and each
wheel has to be in the
correct position for the
message to be read off
the cylinder.

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 1789–1815:
Napoleon Bonaparte
develops his own
cyphers to transmit
sensitive military
information during
the French
Revolution and the
Napoleonic Wars.
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1938–1945: Creating and breaking
codes is critical to success in both world
wars. In particular, the work of Alan
Turing at Bletchley Park during the
Second World War is viewed as one of
the main reasons the Allies won the war
as they were able to crack the German
cyphers in order to read their secret
messages. This is an image of the
Enigma machine.

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 1961: The first ever computer password is created at the
Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) to prevent students from
wasting precious computer time!

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 1995: The term ‘hacker’
becomes a popular way of
describing someone who
tries to break into a
computer system illegally.
Originally the term was used
as a name for people who
were employed by computer
companies to find errors and
mistakes in their programs.

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Today: Modern cryptography is used on a very wide range of personal
and public applications, from encrypting a single file on your own PC to
highly complicated encryption of government secrets.
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 DATA ENCRYPTION
◦ Data encryption translates data into another form, or code, so
that only people with access to a secret key (formally called a
decryption key) or password can read it.
◦ Currently, encryption is one of the most popular and effective
data security methods used by organizations.
◦ Two main types of data encryption
◦ - asymmetric encryption, also known as public-key encryption,
and
◦ symmetric encryption.
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 The primary function of data encryption

The purpose of data encryption is to The outdated data encryption

protect digital data confidentiality as standard (DES) has been replaced by
it is stored on computer systems and modern encryption algorithms that
transmitted using the internet or play a critical role in the security of
other computer networks. IT systems and communications.

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 FNNC
ZESDQMNNM! Can you work out the message?
Clue: If you can’t work it out, use the alphabet to help you find out!
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 Unencrypted messages are
Encrypted messages are
referred to
known as ciphertext.
as plaintext messages.

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 Uses Of Encryption
◦ Encrypting data stored on a laptop hard disk. This is important as a
laptop might contain sensitive information and could be easily stolen. If
the hard disk is encrypted, the information will be unreadable unless the
thief also has the key. In this situation it is usually a username and
password.
◦ When sending sensitive information, such as passwords or credit card
details, over the internet. When a website uses the HTTPS protocol (see
the networks study guide for further details) the information being
transferred is encrypted. This means that if the connection is
intercepted, the information will be unreadable.
◦ Encrypting a document, such as a spreadsheet, using software tools,
before sending it to a colleague via the internet, for security purposes.
◦ Encrypting satellite TV transmissions to prevent users who do not
subscribe from watching TV shows.

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In a substitution cypher, each letter of the alphabet is changed –
substituted – for another character. This is sometimes called a Caesar
Cypher.

If encrypted with this cypher, the message ‘THE EAGLE HAS

LANDED’ becomes ‘VJG GCING JCU NCOFGF’.

If encrypted with this cypher, ‘THE EAGLE HAS LANDED’

becomes ‘RKS SCIES KCE ECGPSP’.
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Transposition Techniques
◦ 1. Rail-Fence Technique
◦ Rail-Fence is the simple Transposition technique that involves
writing plain text as a sequence of diagonals and then reading it
row by row to produce the ciphertext.
Algorithm
◦ Step 1: Write down all the characters of plain text message in a
sequence of diagnosis.
◦ Step 2: Read the plain text written in step 1 as a sequence of rows.
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 Example: Suppose plain text corporate bridge, and we want to create the ciphertext of
the given.
First, we arrange the plain text in a sequence of diagnosis, as shown below.
Now read the plain text by row-wise, i.e. croaerdeoprtbig.
So, here the plain text is a corporate bridge, and ciphertext is croaerdeoprtbig.
The Rail-Fence technique is quite easy to break.
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◦ The simple columnar transposition technique
simply arranges the plain text in a sequence of
rows of a rectangle and reads it in a columnar
manner.
◦ Algorithm:
◦ Step 1: Write all the characters of plain text
message row by row in a rectangle of predefined The simple
size.
columnar
◦ Step 2: Read the message in a columnar manner,
i.e. column by column. transposition
◦ Note: For reading the message, it needs not to be
in the order of columns. It can happen in any
random sequence.
◦ Step 3: The resultant message is ciphertext.
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Example: Let’s assume that Plain text is a corporate bridge, and we need to calculate the cipher text
using a simple columnar transposition technique.
Let’s take 6 columns and arrange the plain text in a row-wise manner.
Decide the column order for reading the message – let’s assume 1,3,5,2,4,6 is an order.
Now read the message in a columnar manner using the decided order. – cadreeorotgpbri
cadreeorotgpbri is a ciphertext.

Column 1 Column 2 Column 3 Column 4 Column 5 Column 6

c o r p o r
a t e b r i
d g e

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With transposition cyphers, the letters of the message are rearranged – transposed –
to form an anagram. The letters must be rearranged according to a set pattern or it
will be much more difficult to decrypt the message.

You can use any number of lines. For example, you could put the message across
three lines:

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Masonic cipher, Freemason's cipher, Napoleon cipher,
or tic-tac-toe cipher
Another variation on a substitution cypher is to substitute letters for
symbols. Different letters of the alphabet are placed into different grids.
The section of the grid that contains each letter has a unique shape,
which becomes a symbol in the code.

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 ◦1.3.1 Compute-IT

◦ a) This is a simple cypher

◦ b) The cheese is on the table

◦The cypher is a simple one-letter shift substitution cypher.

◦1.3.2 Compute-IT

◦The cypher is a simple one-letter shift substitution cypher.

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◦ Alice and Bob want to send secret messages. They meet in private to decide what kind
of key they want to use. Alice uses the secret key to write Bob messages (encryption).
Bob uses it to figure out what Alice said (decryption). If Eve intercepts the message as
it’s being sent from Alice to Bob, we need to make sure that Eve can’t figure out what
they said. If she can, then we don’t have a secure cipher.
◦ 1: Encrypt THE QUICK BROWN FOX using a Shift of 3.
◦ 2: Encrypt MATH IS FUN using a Shift of 5.
◦ 3: Decrypt NBSI JT GVO using shift of 1
◦ 4: Eve intercepted this message: N QNPJ HNUMJWX. Figure out how to break it to get
Alice’s message.
◦ Transposition Cipher Encrypting: Our message is THE SEVEN HILLS OF ROME and our
length is 5 *5
◦ Rail-Fence Technique: Encrypt the plain text corporate bridge

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Decrypt the message KIQRV if it was
encrypted using a basic cypher with
shift 6 as the initial substitution but
shifting the substitution one place
after each character.
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 Encrypt a message using any of the ciphers we
talked about today.
Exchange messages with your partner, but
don’t tell them how you encrypted it.
Try to break your partner’s message.

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