The End....
*Unfortunately, I realized the last and final copy of my essay on cryptology is on the computer at school and I completely forgot to email it back along with my bibliography, but this is almost exactly the same, just missing one small paragraph*
Kelly Crowley
English 10
Jennifer Goen
Cryptology Through the Ages
Cryptology is a subject many people don’t understand, or care enough to understand, about. The dictionary states that cryptography is the science or study of secret writings, most especially in code or cipher systems. But it is more than that. Many people don’t realize that they use codes every day. It is true, no one may write in cryptic symbols anymore, but codes and encryptions are still just as important to modern day life as they were to the past.
Long ago, there was a man that history recognized as Julius Caesar. He was a mighty warrior and leader who led Rome in its glory days, and a man who is credited with using one of the first widely recognized codes, one that eventually gained his name. The Caesar Cipher. A cipher is a means of concealing a message; letters are substituted or transposed for other letters. Author Rudolf Kippenhahn explains that “Caesar’s secret writing simply consisted in the alphabet of the ciphertext being displaced by three letters from that of the plaintext, with the first three letters put in the empty spaces on the right” (Kippenhahn 68). For example, in Caesar’s relatively simple code, A would be replaced by D, B by E, C by F, and so on. The Caesar Cipher might seem simple to people today, but it is more important than people believe. Caesar’s cipher is one of the first verified examples of codes in the past.
Some ciphers are as simple as Caesars, some are not. Caesar’s cipher is an example of a substitution cipher. This is a cipher where letters are substituted for other letters or numbers. Another type of cipher is a transposition cipher; this cipher changes the order of the units, not the units themselves. Anagramming, for instance, is similar to a transposition cipher. A backwards cipher is an example of a transposition cipher. The position of the letters are switched, the last becoming the first until the entire message is written backwards. Transposition ciphers can be easy or difficult to unscramble too. It would always be possible to discover the message even without the key, as Nancy Garden states in The Kids’ Code and Cipher Book, “you always have all the letters of the real message right in front of you. All you have to do is sort them out” (Garden 10).
Another method of encryption is, like the Caesar Cipher, named after a famous man who is said to have invented it, like Thomas Jefferson. Thomas Jefferson invented what we now call the Jefferson Wheel. It consists of thirty-six wooden disks or equal size and each divided into twenty-six equal sectors. These carry the letters of the alphabet in random sequence. The disks are marked at their apexes with the numbers one to thirty-six and mounted on a metal axle. The sender and receiver must possess the same collection of disks and must have them arranged on the axle in the same order to decode the message. Rudolf Kippenhahn once said that Jefferson’s wheel was so successful that “the United States Navy was still using it in World War II” (Kippenhahn 29). This makes the Jefferson Wheel one of the longest used methods of encryption.
Not all codes use letters, or even numbers. There are codes that require flags, symbols, shapes, and dots. One of the most common examples of these is Morse code. Morse code was invented by Samuel F. B. Morse. He conceived the basic idea of a telegraph in 1832 and produced the first working telegraph in 1836. The telegraph sends messages in Morse code through radio signals. Morse code can be transmitted through light, sound, on paper, and can easily be expressed in numerical systems. On paper, each letter is represented by a certain number of dots (.) and dashes (-). For example the combination for O is (---), or three dashes. Samuel Morse began with pulses; he “encoded letters and numerals into long and short pulses: a is short-long, b is long-short-short-short,… z is long-long-short-short.” (Kippenhahn 197). The long and short pulses are easily converted into the dots and dashes, the dots represent a short pulse while a dash represents a long pulse. Even today, Morse code is still an easy, reliable way to transmit messages today.
In 1977 the American government introduced a new system Data Encryption Standard, or DES for short. In the DES system, plaintext is written in the form of binary numbers and divided into blocks of sixty-four numerals, into chains of 0110011010100001101001. In computer speech these are blocks of sixty-four bits. Each block then undergoes a complicated procedure explained by Rudolf Kippenhahn:
First, each plaintext block is split into a left and a right block of thirty-two bits each. Next, in sixteen consecutive steps, the right and left blocks are exchanged and each time linked with one of the partial keys of forty-eight bits. Finally the two halves, shuffled beyond recognition and combined with partial keys, are reunited into a block of sixty-four bits. This is the ciphertext block. Only with the knowledge of the key can the decoder retrace the individual steps and thus arrive at the original block. (Kippenhahn 205)
DES is one of the more complicated methods of encryption, and one of the more frequently used systems today. Its use is made easier by computers which make it possible to encode large quantities of data.
Computers have played a large role in cryptology and encryption, they have since they were first invented. In actuality, computers run on codes and encryption. The programs and commands are all written in encryptions. One example of this is C++, or C plus plus, a programming language. By programming a computer with this language it is possible to send commands and orders for the computer. In reality every time you ‘click’ an icon on the computer, there is a message being encoded, sent to a specific place, decoded again and then translated into an action. A computer is like a whole network that cooperates and works together, a well organized system, but a complicated one.
What many people don’t understand is how cryptology rules many parts of our lives today. That little magnetic strip on the credit cards, that’s a method of encrypting the private information that identifies the card with its owner. Personal identification numbers, PINs, are stored in banks in an encrypted form so no one can steal them. Passwords, log-ins, and identification cards are all kinds of codes and encryptions that are designed to protect the user and their information. The fact that people need to use so many methods to hide from others is a testament to society and its faults, but the important thing to remember is how vital cryptology can be today. In the past, coded messages can save lives, and today they can save livelihoods. In reality, nothing has really changed. The use of codes is a part of history and will inevitably be a part of the future.
Thanks again to Jennifer and everyone else. Have an awesome summer! -Kelly
Kelly Crowley
English 10
Jennifer Goen
Cryptology Through the Ages
Cryptology is a subject many people don’t understand, or care enough to understand, about. The dictionary states that cryptography is the science or study of secret writings, most especially in code or cipher systems. But it is more than that. Many people don’t realize that they use codes every day. It is true, no one may write in cryptic symbols anymore, but codes and encryptions are still just as important to modern day life as they were to the past.
Long ago, there was a man that history recognized as Julius Caesar. He was a mighty warrior and leader who led Rome in its glory days, and a man who is credited with using one of the first widely recognized codes, one that eventually gained his name. The Caesar Cipher. A cipher is a means of concealing a message; letters are substituted or transposed for other letters. Author Rudolf Kippenhahn explains that “Caesar’s secret writing simply consisted in the alphabet of the ciphertext being displaced by three letters from that of the plaintext, with the first three letters put in the empty spaces on the right” (Kippenhahn 68). For example, in Caesar’s relatively simple code, A would be replaced by D, B by E, C by F, and so on. The Caesar Cipher might seem simple to people today, but it is more important than people believe. Caesar’s cipher is one of the first verified examples of codes in the past.
Some ciphers are as simple as Caesars, some are not. Caesar’s cipher is an example of a substitution cipher. This is a cipher where letters are substituted for other letters or numbers. Another type of cipher is a transposition cipher; this cipher changes the order of the units, not the units themselves. Anagramming, for instance, is similar to a transposition cipher. A backwards cipher is an example of a transposition cipher. The position of the letters are switched, the last becoming the first until the entire message is written backwards. Transposition ciphers can be easy or difficult to unscramble too. It would always be possible to discover the message even without the key, as Nancy Garden states in The Kids’ Code and Cipher Book, “you always have all the letters of the real message right in front of you. All you have to do is sort them out” (Garden 10).
Another method of encryption is, like the Caesar Cipher, named after a famous man who is said to have invented it, like Thomas Jefferson. Thomas Jefferson invented what we now call the Jefferson Wheel. It consists of thirty-six wooden disks or equal size and each divided into twenty-six equal sectors. These carry the letters of the alphabet in random sequence. The disks are marked at their apexes with the numbers one to thirty-six and mounted on a metal axle. The sender and receiver must possess the same collection of disks and must have them arranged on the axle in the same order to decode the message. Rudolf Kippenhahn once said that Jefferson’s wheel was so successful that “the United States Navy was still using it in World War II” (Kippenhahn 29). This makes the Jefferson Wheel one of the longest used methods of encryption.
Not all codes use letters, or even numbers. There are codes that require flags, symbols, shapes, and dots. One of the most common examples of these is Morse code. Morse code was invented by Samuel F. B. Morse. He conceived the basic idea of a telegraph in 1832 and produced the first working telegraph in 1836. The telegraph sends messages in Morse code through radio signals. Morse code can be transmitted through light, sound, on paper, and can easily be expressed in numerical systems. On paper, each letter is represented by a certain number of dots (.) and dashes (-). For example the combination for O is (---), or three dashes. Samuel Morse began with pulses; he “encoded letters and numerals into long and short pulses: a is short-long, b is long-short-short-short,… z is long-long-short-short.” (Kippenhahn 197). The long and short pulses are easily converted into the dots and dashes, the dots represent a short pulse while a dash represents a long pulse. Even today, Morse code is still an easy, reliable way to transmit messages today.
In 1977 the American government introduced a new system Data Encryption Standard, or DES for short. In the DES system, plaintext is written in the form of binary numbers and divided into blocks of sixty-four numerals, into chains of 0110011010100001101001. In computer speech these are blocks of sixty-four bits. Each block then undergoes a complicated procedure explained by Rudolf Kippenhahn:
First, each plaintext block is split into a left and a right block of thirty-two bits each. Next, in sixteen consecutive steps, the right and left blocks are exchanged and each time linked with one of the partial keys of forty-eight bits. Finally the two halves, shuffled beyond recognition and combined with partial keys, are reunited into a block of sixty-four bits. This is the ciphertext block. Only with the knowledge of the key can the decoder retrace the individual steps and thus arrive at the original block. (Kippenhahn 205)
DES is one of the more complicated methods of encryption, and one of the more frequently used systems today. Its use is made easier by computers which make it possible to encode large quantities of data.
Computers have played a large role in cryptology and encryption, they have since they were first invented. In actuality, computers run on codes and encryption. The programs and commands are all written in encryptions. One example of this is C++, or C plus plus, a programming language. By programming a computer with this language it is possible to send commands and orders for the computer. In reality every time you ‘click’ an icon on the computer, there is a message being encoded, sent to a specific place, decoded again and then translated into an action. A computer is like a whole network that cooperates and works together, a well organized system, but a complicated one.
What many people don’t understand is how cryptology rules many parts of our lives today. That little magnetic strip on the credit cards, that’s a method of encrypting the private information that identifies the card with its owner. Personal identification numbers, PINs, are stored in banks in an encrypted form so no one can steal them. Passwords, log-ins, and identification cards are all kinds of codes and encryptions that are designed to protect the user and their information. The fact that people need to use so many methods to hide from others is a testament to society and its faults, but the important thing to remember is how vital cryptology can be today. In the past, coded messages can save lives, and today they can save livelihoods. In reality, nothing has really changed. The use of codes is a part of history and will inevitably be a part of the future.
Thanks again to Jennifer and everyone else. Have an awesome summer! -Kelly