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In cryptography, a Caesar cipher, also known as Caesar's cipher, the shift cipher, Caesar's code, or Caesar shift, is one of the simplest and most widely known encryption techniques. It is a type of substitution cipher in which each letter in the plaintext is replaced by a letter some fixed number of positions down the alphabet.
The four-square cipher uses four 5 by 5 (5x5) matrices arranged in a square. Each of the 5 by 5 matrices contains the letters of the alphabet (usually omitting "Q" or putting both "I" and "J" in the same location to reduce the alphabet to fit).
Many people solve such ciphers for recreation, as with cryptogram puzzles in the newspaper. According to the unicity distance of English, 27.6 letters of ciphertext are required to crack a mixed alphabet simple substitution. In practice, typically about 50 letters are needed, although some messages can be broken with fewer if unusual patterns ...
However, asking users to remember a password consisting of a "mix of uppercase and lowercase characters" is similar to asking them to remember a sequence of bits: hard to remember, and only a little bit harder to crack (e.g. only 128 times harder to crack for 7-letter passwords, less if the user simply capitalizes one of the letters).
In a substitution cipher, letters, or groups of letters, are systematically replaced throughout the message for other letters, groups of letters, or symbols. A well-known example of a substitution cipher is the Caesar cipher. To encrypt a message with the Caesar cipher, each letter of message is replaced by the letter three positions later in ...
Codes contain meaning; words and phrases are assigned to numbers or symbols, creating a shorter message. An example of this is the commercial telegraph code which was used to shorten long telegraph messages which resulted from entering into commercial contracts using exchanges of telegrams .
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Occasionally, cryptogram puzzle makers will start the solver off with a few letters. A printed code key form; the alphabet with a blank under each letter to fill in the substituted letter, is usually not provided but can be drawn to use as a solving aid if needed. Skilled puzzle solvers should require neither a code key form nor starter clue ...