Cryptology and Cipher Codes

In a world where identity theft is on the rise, hackers are hard at work trying to get people’s credit card numbers, and where companies are getting your information to sell you unwanted things, tight security has become a large factor of keeping the personal and confidential information of our society safe. Cryptology and Cipher codes are commonly used ways to keep confidential information protected by preventing people not in on the secret from understanding what is being transmitted. Cryptology is the science of secure communication which is also the encoding and decoding of data. Cipher codes are more complicated because it is a method used to transform a message into an obscure form. The use of these secured messages has been dated back to the first societies of the world where they were used for many of the same reasons they are today. The first use of written cryptology was believed to take place at about 1900 B.C when an Egyptian scribe first used a non-standard form of hieroglyphics in his writing.

Then in 1500 B.C in Mesopotamia (common day Iraq), an enciphered message in cuneiform was used to conceal a formula to make glazes for pottery. In the years 500 through 600 B.C, Hebrew scribes used a reverse alphabet simple substitution cipher to write the book of Jeremiah which was known as ATBASH. The Greeks used a device called a scytale (rhymes with Italy) in 487 B.C which consisted of a strip of leather that was wrapped and then written on then used as a belt which the recipient would be wearing as well and that would decode the message. The famous Julius Caesar used cryptology to keep government communications private throughout 50 to 60 B.C. Even the first president of the United States George Washington used encoded messages to send to his fellow soldiers. Therefore, cryptology and cipher codes have played large roles in the confidentiality of societies in the past as they do in the present.

The subject of Cryptography is an important branch of Cryptology. Cryptography sternly focuses on translating a message into a cipher or code. A code is based on syllables, words, and phrases and a cipher is based on algorithms that transform plaintext to ciphertext. The way to encode a message in Cryptography is by taking ordinary information, which is called plaintext, and translating it into a very complex, unreadable message called ciphertext. To decode the message, the opposite is performed which means the ciphertext is translated back to readable plaintext. This may possibly seem easy however, creating and decoding codes can be close to impossible if there is no key. One-time pads act as a key because they are random lists of letters that are mixed with the plaintext or code books. Code books are lists of words or phrases and their replacement codes used to decipher a message. In a one-part code, the replacement codes are in the same alphabetic order so that the same list can be used for decoding. If a second list is needed to sort the codes alphabetically, then the scheme to encode the message is known as a two-part code.

For a message to be received and then decoded by the intended readers, a book with all of the codes enlisted must be distributed to all of these readers. However, if the code book gets into the wrong hands, the code is no longer secure and a new code is required to be redistributed back to the readers. Two types of Ciphers are transportation ciphers and substitution ciphers. Transportation ciphers have to do with moving the letters of plaintext into new positions in the ciphertext based on the algorithm or procedure. The Caesar Square, rail-fence cipher, magic squares, knight’s tour, and text inversion are all examples of transportation ciphers. Substitution ciphers use mapping techniques to replace letters by other characters. Some substitution ciphers are the Caesar Shift, ATBASH, and keyword. The Caesar Cipher is the most famous of all because it was used by Julius Caesar and it is the simplest of all substitution ciphers. It involves replacing each character with the letter three ahead of it in the alphabet. The Caesar Cipher is shown below. The level of difficulty of substitution ciphers vary.

Caesar Cipher
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z A B C

Cryptanalysis is the other branch of Cryptology and it focuses on finding a weakness in a cipher that will retrieve the plaintext from the ciphertext without knowing the key or algorithm. Cryptanalysis uses a different approach to decoding a message because it has to do with only ciphers. Unlike codes, ciphers operate on a systematic algorithm or a fixed process for short. This means ciphers do not need a key to be deciphered because they often contain a keyword that can continue to be used even when the system is known and when the keyword itself is known. Altering the keyword increases the confidentiality of it every time. When using Cryptanalysis, a cipher can be broken or weakened by finding a mistake in the cipher or trying every possible key until the right one is finally found. There are various methods of attacking a cipher however, there are five main methods. One is the Known Plaintext Analysis where the person attempting to weaken the cipher knows a portion of the plaintext from the ciphertext and tries to decipher the key that was used to make the ciphertext. Another is the Chosen Plaintext Analysis where the key cannot be analyzed therefore the person intending to break the key by comparing the ciphertext with the original plaintext.

A third method is the Ciphertext-Only Analysis where a person may only work off of the ciphertext because there is no knowledge of the plaintext which involves good guessing abilities in guessing the wording of a cipher. The Man-in-the-Middle Attack is unlike the other methods of analyzing a cipher because it involves tricking people into giving up their keys instead of trying to decipher an algorithm. Without knowing it, the people being attacked openly surrender their keys to the attacker. Lastly, The Timing/Differential Power Analysis is a relatively new method that is useful against smart cards which measure differences in the consumption of electricity when a microchip secures information. This method can be used for information about key computations used in the algorithm for encrypting and other functions regarding security as well. A milestone in the history of Cryptanalysis was during World War 2 when the Enigma was broken. The Enigma Machine was used by the German armed forces at the time and it would encrypt ultra secret military messages. The Enigma was considered unbreakable because there were than 150 million possible encodings to it. However, the code was later broken by the British and it’s said that the breaking of the Enigma shortened the war by up to two years. This successful cryptanalysis assisted in defeating the Germans and saved many lives.

Mathematics plays a significant role in Cryptology in the translation of plaintext to ciphertext. There are countless formulas and equations that can be used to encode or decode a cipher. Using mathematics create complex ciphers which add sufficient security to them and offers sophisticated implementation of public key scheme, improvements in implementation, and better techniques to attack a cryptosystem. Integers, prime numbers, factoring, primality tests, and probabilistic primality tests are some of the math utilized Cryptology. In mathematical notation, the parts that go into encrypting and decrypting are P: the plaintext, C: the ciphertext, E: the encryption function and D: the decryption function. A simple literal equation used to encode a cipher is E(P)=C which means the encryption process is being applied to the plaintext which will produce the ciphertext. A simple equation used to decode a cipher is D(C) = P which means the decryption process is being applied to the ciphertext which produces the plaintext. Also, D(E(P)) = P and E(D(C)) = C. These are the most simple equations of the countless ones in the world.

Cryptology may have been used since the beginnings of society however, some of the ways they are used today differ. New kinds of encryption can be very advanced and complex however, the basic idea of keeping information safe is still in use. Because of the level of difficulty modern Cryptology has, The National Security Agency or NSA was created to protect U.S government communications. Cryptology is used today to protect storage data, transactions, documents, network space, and emails between computers. Governments, militaries, businesses and organizations are steady users of Cryptology because the need for security and protection has greatly increased in recent years. Cryptology is also used in credit cards by the use of PIN numbers. Secured websites, computer passwords, trade deals, even lottery tickets all depend on cryptology to keep their information confidential. Resulting from the evolution of technology, most cryptology today can now be done through computer software. People no longer have to spend very long periods of time searching through code books to have a message decoded. What does the future have in store for Cryptology? Will super computers be able to decode a message in seconds? Will the power of the cryptanalysts weaken? How large of a role will Cryptology play in daily life? We can only wait and see. Cryptology is a study that is rapidly advancing and will continue to for many more years to come.

Bibliography

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