Cipher Type Detection

Total Page:16

File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb

Cipher Type Detection Cipher Type Detection Malte Nuhn Kevin Knight Human Language Technology Information Sciences Institute and Pattern Recognition Group University of Southern California Computer Science Department [email protected] RWTH Aachen University [email protected] Abstract they often still need human interaction and are only restricted to analyzing very few types of ci- Manual analysis and decryption of enci- phers. In practice however, there are many differ- phered documents is a tedious and error ent types of ciphers which we would like to an- prone work. Often—even after spend- alyze in a fully automatic fashion: Bauer (2010) ing large amounts of time on a par- gives a good overview over historical methods that ticular cipher—no decipherment can be have been used to encipher messages in the past. found. Automating the decryption of var- Similarly, the American Cryptogram Association ious types of ciphers makes it possible (ACA) specifies a set of 56 different methods for to sift through the large number of en- enciphering a given plaintext: crypted messages found in libraries and Each encipherment method Mi can be seen as archives, and to focus human effort only a function that transforms a given plaintext into a on a small but potentially interesting sub- ciphertext using a given key, or short: set of them. In this work, we train a clas- cipher = M (plain, key) sifier that is able to predict which enci- i pherment method has been used to gener- When analyzing an unknown ciphertext, we are ate a given ciphertext. We are able to dis- interested in the original plaintext that was used to tinguish 50 different cipher types (speci- generate the ciphertext, i.e. the opposite direction: fied by the American Cryptogram Associ- 1 ation) with an accuracy of 58.5%. This is a plain = Mi− (cipher, key) 11.2% absolute improvement over the best previously published classifier. Obtaining the plaintext from an enciphered mes- sage is a difficult problem. We assume that the decipherment of a message can be separated into 1 Introduction solving three different subproblems: Libraries and archives contain a large number of 1. Find the encipherment method Mi that was encrypted messages created throughout the cen- used to create the cipher turies using various encryption methods. For the great majority of the ciphers an analysis has not cipher M → i yet been conducted, simply because it takes too 2. Find the key that was used together with the . much time to analyze each cipher individually, or method Mi to encipher the plaintext to obtain because it is too hard to decipher them. Automatic cipher = Mi(plain, key). methods for analyzing and classifying given ci- phers makes it possible to sift interesting messages 3. Decode the message using Mi and key 1 cipher M − (cipher, key) and by that focus the limited amount of human re- → i sources to a promising subset of ciphers. Thus, an intermediate step to deciphering an un- For specific types of ciphers, there exist au- known ciphertext is to find out which encryption tomated tools to decipher encrypted messages. method was used. In this paper, we present a clas- However, the publicly available tools often de- sifier that is able to predict just that: Given an un- pend on a more or less educated guess which known ciphertext, it can predict what kind of en- type of encipherment has been used. Furthermore, cryption method was most likely used to generate 1769 Proceedings of the 2014 Conference on Empirical Methods in Natural Language Processing (EMNLP), pages 1769–1773, October 25-29, 2014, Doha, Qatar. c 2014 Association for Computational Linguistics Type: CMBIFID plaintext key type • Plaintext: • WOMEN NSFOO TBALL ISGAI encipher NINGI NPOPU LARIT YANDT HETOU RNAME ciphertext Key: • LEFTKEY=’IACERATIONS’ classifier training RIGHTKEY=’KNORKOPPING’ PERIOD=3, LROUTE=1 Figure 2: Overview over the data generation and RROUTE=1, USE6X6=0 training of the classifier presented in this work. Ciphertext: • WTQNG GEEBQ BPNQP VANEN KDAOD GAHQS PKNVI PTAAP DGMGR PCSGN Figure 1: Example “CMBIFID” cipher: Text is 3 General Approach grouped in five character chunks for readability. Given a ciphertext, the task is to find the right en- cryption method. Our test set covers 50 out of 56 it. The results of our classifier are a valuable input cipher types specified by ACA, as listed in Fig- to human decipherers to make a first categoriza- ure 3. We are going to take a machine learning ap- tion of an unknown ciphertext. proach which is based on the observation that we can generate an infinite amount of training data. 2 Related Work 3.1 Data Flow Central to this work is the list of encryption meth- The training procedure is depicted in Figure 2: ods provided by the American Cipher Associa- Based upon a large English corpus, we first choose tion1. This list contains detailed descriptions and possible plaintext messages. Then, for each enci- examples of each of the cipher types, allowing us pherment method, we choose a random key and to implement them. Figure 3 lists these methods. encipher each of the plaintext messages using the We compare our work to the only previously encipherment method and key. By doing this, we published cipher type classifier for classical ci- can obtain (a theoretically infinite) amount of la- phers2. This classifier is trained on 16, 800 cipher- beled data of the form (type, ciphertext). We can texts and is implemented in javascript to run in the then train a classifier on this data and evaluate it web browser: The user can provide the ciphertext on some held out data. as input to a web page that returns the classifier’s Figure 1 shows that in general the key can con- predictions. The source code of the classifier is sist of more than just a codeword: In this case, available online. Our work includes a reimple- the method uses two codewords, a period length, mentation of the features used in that classifier. two different permutation parameters, and a gen- As examples for work that deals with the auto- eral decision whether to use a special “6 6” vari- mated decipherment of cipher texts, we point to × ant of the cipher or not. If not defined otherwise, (Ravi and Knight, 2011), and (Nuhn et al., 2013). we choose random settings for these parameters. These publications develop specialized algorithms If the parameters are integers, we choose random for solving simple and homophonic substitution values from a uniform distribution (in a sensible ciphers, which are just two out of the 56 cipher range). In case of codewords, we choose the 450k types defined by the ACA. We also want to men- most frequent words from an English dictionary. tion (de Souza et al., 2013), which presents a ci- We train on cipher texts of random length. pher type classifier for the finalist algorithms of the Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) contest. 3.2 Classifiers 1 http://cryptogram.org/cipher_types.html 2 The previous state-of-the-art classifier by BION See http://bionsgadgets.appspot.com/gadget_forms/ refscore_extended.html and https://sites.google.com/site/ uses a random forest classifier (Breiman, 2001). bionspot/cipher-id-tests The version that is available online, uses 50 ran- 1770 6x6bifid four square (nihilisttransp) fort swagman • 6x6playfair • fracmorse • patristocrat progressivekey • tridigital • amsco • grandpre • period 7 vig. • quagmire2 • trifid • bazeries • (grille) • periodic gro- • quagmire3 • trisquare • beaufort • gromark • mark • quagmire4 • trisquare hr • bifid6 • gronsfeld phillips • ragbaby • two square • bifid7 • homophonic • plaintext • randomdigit • two sq. spiral • (cadenus) • mnmedinome • playfair • randomtext • vigautokey • cmbifid • morbit • pollux • redefence • (vigenere) • columnar • myszkowski • porta • (route transp) • (vigslidefair) • digrafid • nicodemus • portax • runningkey • • dbl chckrbrd • nihilistsub • progkey beau- • seriatedpfair • • • • Figure 3: Cipher types specified by ACA. Our classifier is able to recognize 50 out of these 56 ciphers. The braced cipher types are not covered in this work. dom decision trees. The features used by this clas- tains a digit, a letter (A-Z), the “#” symbol, the sifier are described in Section 4. letter “j”, the digit “0”. We also introduce an- Further, we train a support vector machine using other set of features called DGT that contains two the libSVM toolkit (Chang and Lin, 2011). This features, firing when the cipher is starting or end- is feasible for up to 100k training examples. Be- ing with a digit. The set VIG contains 5 features: yond this point, training times become too large. The feature score is based on the best possible bi- We perform multi class classification using ν-SVC gram LM perplexity of a decipherment compatible and a polynomial kernel. Multi class classification with the decipherment process of the cipher types is performed using one-against-one binary classifi- Autokey, Beaufort, Porta, Slidefair and Vigenere. cation. We select the SVM’s free parameters using Further, we also include the features IC, MIC, a small development set of 1k training examples. MKA, DIC, EDI, LR, ROD and LDI, DBL, NOMOR, We also use Vowpal Wabbit (Langford et al., RDI, PTX, NIC, PHIC, BDI, CDD, SSTD, MPIC, 2007) to train a linear classifier using stochastic SERP, which were introduced in the BION classi- gradient descent. Compared to training SVMs, fier3. Thus, the first 22 data points in Figure 4 are Vowpal Wabbit is extremely fast and allows using based on previously known features by BION. We a lot of training examples. We use a squared loss further present the following additional features. function, adaptive learning rates and don’t employ any regularization. We train our classifier with up 4.1 Repetition Feature (REP) to 1M training examples. The best performing set- This set of features is based on how often the ci- tings use one-against-all classification, 20 passes phertext contains symbols that are repeated ex- over the training data and the default learning rate.
Recommended publications
  • Simple Substitution and Caesar Ciphers
    Spring 2015 Chris Christensen MAT/CSC 483 Simple Substitution Ciphers The art of writing secret messages – intelligible to those who are in possession of the key and unintelligible to all others – has been studied for centuries. The usefulness of such messages, especially in time of war, is obvious; on the other hand, their solution may be a matter of great importance to those from whom the key is concealed. But the romance connected with the subject, the not uncommon desire to discover a secret, and the implied challenge to the ingenuity of all from who it is hidden have attracted to the subject the attention of many to whom its utility is a matter of indifference. Abraham Sinkov In Mathematical Recreations & Essays By W.W. Rouse Ball and H.S.M. Coxeter, c. 1938 We begin our study of cryptology from the romantic point of view – the point of view of someone who has the “not uncommon desire to discover a secret” and someone who takes up the “implied challenged to the ingenuity” that is tossed down by secret writing. We begin with one of the most common classical ciphers: simple substitution. A simple substitution cipher is a method of concealment that replaces each letter of a plaintext message with another letter. Here is the key to a simple substitution cipher: Plaintext letters: abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz Ciphertext letters: EKMFLGDQVZNTOWYHXUSPAIBRCJ The key gives the correspondence between a plaintext letter and its replacement ciphertext letter. (It is traditional to use small letters for plaintext and capital letters, or small capital letters, for ciphertext. We will not use small capital letters for ciphertext so that plaintext and ciphertext letters will line up vertically.) Using this key, every plaintext letter a would be replaced by ciphertext E, every plaintext letter e by L, etc.
    [Show full text]
  • Download Full-Text
    IJCSI International Journal of Computer Science Issues, Vol. 10, Issue 4, No 2, July 2013 ISSN (Print): 1694-0814 | ISSN (Online): 1694-0784 www.IJCSI.org 89 An Eccentric Scheme for Oblivious Communication Khan Farhan Rafat and Muhammad Sher Department of Computer Science, International Islamic University Islamabad, 44000, Pakistan alphabets and then threading the yarn through these holes Abstract in an order which when detached spelt out letters of hidden Trust is the foremost requirement in any form of communication. message in its correct sequence [3]: Building trust through physical contact, gesture etc. is easy but hard to establish in electronic data communication as one can’t “padielaporsymesarponomeuaspeludynmalpreaxo” be sure of the presence of the intended recipient at the other end. “Ave Maria” is yet another smart method for encoding This necessitated the need to devise and suggest covert schemes secret message where list of distinct words for each unique for oblivious communication that only the intended recipient may alphabet are grouped in a series of Tables. For every unveil. Steganography is one such technique where information alphabet constituting the message, word corresponding to to be sent is seamlessly superimposed on the carrier such that it that letter from the set of Tables gets substituted and easily crosses the information confronting barriers without appeared as innocent rhyme whenever the Tables are used detection. This paper endeavors at evolving a data hiding scheme in sequence. envisaged by Shannon and in adherence to Kerchoff’s principle that hides secret information inside statistically random English Cardano introduced the “Grille System” [4] where every alphabets appearing as cryptogram.
    [Show full text]
  • Cryptography: Symmetric Encryption Unit 3
    10/22/2019 CS Matters in Maryland (http://csmatters.org) 3 - 11 0b11 - 0b1011 Cryptography: Symmetric Encryption Unit 3. Information and the Internet Revision Date: Jul 22, 2019 Duration: 1 50-minute session Lesson Summary Summary Students are introduced to the topic of cryptography and learn to perform two encryption techniques. The students will identify the role of the algorithm and key in the encryption process. Students will use abstraction to see the general process used in symmetric encryption. The students will consider the strength of ciphers and the importance of keeping the key a secret. Outcomes Students will understand how encryption is used to keep data secure. Students will learn how encrypting and decrypting data is accomplished using an algorithm and a key. Students will understand why the key must be kept a secret. Overview 1. Getting Started (5 min) - Journal 2. Introduction to Content (15 min) 1. Lesson Motivation [5 min] 2. Presenting the Key Concepts [10 min] 3. Guided Activities (25 min) 1. Practice [15 min] 2. Follow Up: Analyzing the Strength of Ciphers [5 min] 3. Follow Up: Defining Symmetric Encryption and Seeing the Abstraction in Symmetric Encryption Systems [5 min] 4. Wrap Up (5 min) - Journal Learning Objectives CSP Objectives EU AAP-2 - The way statements are sequenced and combined in a program determines the computed result. Programs incorporate iteration and selection constructs to represent repetition and make decisions to handle varied input values. LO AAP-2.A - Express an algorithm that uses sequencing without using a programming language. LO AAP-2.L - Compare multiple algorithms to determine if they yield the same side effect or result.
    [Show full text]
  • A Complete Bibliography of Publications in Cryptologia
    A Complete Bibliography of Publications in Cryptologia Nelson H. F. Beebe University of Utah Department of Mathematics, 110 LCB 155 S 1400 E RM 233 Salt Lake City, UT 84112-0090 USA Tel: +1 801 581 5254 FAX: +1 801 581 4148 E-mail: [email protected], [email protected], [email protected] (Internet) WWW URL: http://www.math.utah.edu/~beebe/ 04 September 2021 Version 3.64 Title word cross-reference 10016-8810 [?, ?]. 1221 [?]. 125 [?]. 15.00/$23.60.0 [?]. 15th [?, ?]. 16th [?]. 17-18 [?]. 18 [?]. 180-4 [?]. 1812 [?]. 18th (t; m)[?]. (t; n)[?, ?]. $10.00 [?]. $12.00 [?, ?, ?, ?, ?]. 18th-Century [?]. 1930s [?]. [?]. 128 [?]. $139.99 [?]. $15.00 [?]. $16.95 1939 [?]. 1940 [?, ?]. 1940s [?]. 1941 [?]. [?]. $16.96 [?]. $18.95 [?]. $24.00 [?]. 1942 [?]. 1943 [?]. 1945 [?, ?, ?, ?, ?]. $24.00/$34 [?]. $24.95 [?, ?]. $26.95 [?]. 1946 [?, ?]. 1950s [?]. 1970s [?]. 1980s [?]. $29.95 [?]. $30.95 [?]. $39 [?]. $43.39 [?]. 1989 [?]. 19th [?, ?]. $45.00 [?]. $5.95 [?]. $54.00 [?]. $54.95 [?]. $54.99 [?]. $6.50 [?]. $6.95 [?]. $69.00 2 [?, ?]. 200/220 [?]. 2000 [?]. 2004 [?, ?]. [?]. $69.95 [?]. $75.00 [?]. $89.95 [?]. th 2008 [?]. 2009 [?]. 2011 [?]. 2013 [?, ?]. [?]. A [?]. A3 [?, ?]. χ [?]. H [?]. k [?, ?]. M 2014 [?]. 2017 [?]. 2019 [?]. 20755-6886 [?, ?]. M 3 [?]. n [?, ?, ?]. [?]. 209 [?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?]. 20th [?]. 21 [?]. 22 [?]. 220 [?]. 24-Hour [?, ?, ?]. 25 [?, ?]. -Bit [?]. -out-of- [?, ?]. -tests [?]. 25.00/$39.30 [?]. 25.00/839.30 [?]. 25A1 [?]. 25B [?]. 26 [?, ?]. 28147 [?]. 28147-89 000 [?]. 01Q [?, ?]. [?]. 285 [?]. 294 [?]. 2in [?, ?]. 2nd [?, ?, ?, ?]. 1 [?, ?, ?, ?]. 1-4398-1763-4 [?]. 1/2in [?, ?]. 10 [?]. 100 [?]. 10011-4211 [?]. 3 [?, ?, ?, ?]. 3/4in [?, ?]. 30 [?]. 310 1 2 [?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?]. 312 [?]. 325 [?]. 3336 [?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?]. affine [?]. [?]. 35 [?]. 36 [?]. 3rd [?]. Afluisterstation [?, ?]. After [?]. Aftermath [?]. Again [?, ?]. Against 4 [?]. 40 [?]. 44 [?]. 45 [?]. 45th [?]. 47 [?]. [?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?]. Age 4in [?, ?]. [?, ?]. Agencies [?]. Agency [?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?].
    [Show full text]
  • Substitution Cipher in Cryptography, a Substitution Cipher Is a Method Of
    Substitution cipher In cryptography, a substitution cipher is a method of encryption by which units of plaintext are replaced with ciphertext according to a regular system; the "units" may be single letters (the most common), pairs of letters, triplets of letters, mixtures of the above, and so forth. The receiver deciphers the text by performing an inverse substitution. Substitution ciphers can be compared with transposition ciphers. In a transposition cipher, the units of the plaintext are rearranged in a different and usually quite complex order, but the units themselves are left unchanged. By contrast, in a substitution cipher, the units of the plaintext are retained in the same sequence in the ciphertext, but the units themselves are altered. There are a number of different types of substitution cipher. If the cipher operates on single letters, it is termed a simple substitution cipher; a cipher that operates on larger groups of letters is termed polygraphic. A monoalphabetic cipher uses fixed substitution over the entire message, whereas a polyalphabetic cipher uses a number of substitutions at different times in the message, where a unit from the plaintext is mapped to one of several possibilities in the ciphertext and vice-versa. Contents • 1 Simple substitution o 1.1 Examples o 1.2 Security for simple substitution ciphers • 2 Homophonic substitution • 3 Polyalphabetic substitution • 4 Polygraphic substitution • 5 Mechanical substitution ciphers • 6 The one-time pad • 7 Substitution in modern cryptography • 8 Substitution ciphers in popular culture Simple substitution 1 ROT13 is a Caesar cipher, a type of substitution cipher. In ROT13, the alphabet is rotated 13 steps.
    [Show full text]
  • CLASSICAL CRYPTOGRAPHY COURSE by LANAKI February 22
    CLASSICAL CRYPTOGRAPHY COURSE BY LANAKI February 22, 1996 Revision 0 COPYRIGHT 1996 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED LECTURE 8 INTRODUCTION TO CRYPTARITHMS AND HILL CIPHER SUMMARY In Lecture 8, we depart from the schedule for a real treat. In the first part of this Lecture, we introduce Cryptarithms by our guest lecturer LEDGE (Dr. Gerhard D. Linz). LEDGE has already produced one of our better references on beginning cryptography [LEDG], and I appreciate his assistance in our course. The cryptarithms portion of this course will be presented in three lectures and for the final book labelled Lectures 20 - 23. Following the Cryptarithms section we introduce the Hill Cipher. Our second guest lecturer is NORTH DECODER. Dr. Jerry Metzger and his team are presenting you with the Crypto Drop Box and the ACA-L Listserver. The Hill cipher has six GIF files associated with it and can be found at the CDB. Waiting in wings patiently for my resource materials is TATTERS to present Cipher Exchange problems. INTRODUCTION TO CRYPTARITHMS (by LEDGE) Here's the first of the Cryptarithm lectures. It consists of a general introduction to the genre including how to read the problems. That's followed by an explanation of modulo arithmetic. Then we look at how to identify the letters that represent 0, 1 and 9, called digital characteristics. Then there are two sections on making inferences, each demonstrating a problem solution. Finally, there's a section on extracting square roots. Next lecture LEDGE will give some aids for solving multiplication problems and then go into base 11 and base 12 arithmetic.
    [Show full text]
  • Solving Cipher Secrets
    SOLVING CIPHER SECRETS Edited by M. E. Ohaver A PROFITABLE LESSON ON THE SOLUTION OF A CRYPTOGRAM IN AN UNKNOWN CIPHER SYSTEM-ALSO READER CIPHERS O solve a cryptogram in a cipher may be so unapparent as to require known cipher system, it is the application of delicate cryptographic only necessary to apply tests to discover their presence. methods peculiar to that If a comparison is again allowable, this cipher. But suppose the would be like identifying the man by his system is unknown. How, Bertillon measurements, or by his finger• then, would it be possible to determine the prints. method of solution? To demonstrate the practicability of these That the fans are much concerned with tesf s, we have applied some of them in this this question would seem to be indicated article to a cryptogram that was submitted by the volume of mail from readers who to this department without solution or ex• stale that they have successfully used the planation. different methods described in these columns This cryptogram was chosen from many for various ciphers, but who wonder if there similar ones for several reasons. In the first is any way of finding what method to use place, it illustrates all the points brought when the cipher is unknown. up by the various tests. Again, it happens Fortunately, in many cases a cipher will to be in a standard system that we wanted leave an indelible impress on a cryptogram, to present to our readers, anyway. And, allowing the system to be identified, or, at finally, the fact that the inditer was abso• any rate, to be recognized within limits, by lutely certain his specimen could not be de• certain more or less easily recognizable ciphered—an opinion he no longer holds—• characteristics.
    [Show full text]
  • Card-Present Processing for Cybersource Through Visanet Using the Simple Order API
    Title Page Card-Present Processing for Cybersource through VisaNet Using the Simple Order API Supplement to Credit Card Services for CyberSource through VisaNet Using the Simple Order API and PIN Debit Processing for CyberSource through VisaNet Using the Simple Order API Cybersource Contact Information For general information about our company, products, and services, go to http://www.cybersource.com. For sales questions about any CyberSource service, email [email protected] or call 650-432-7350 or 888-330-2300 (toll free in the United States). For support information about any CyberSource service, visit the Support Center: http://www.cybersource.com/support Copyright © 2020. CyberSource Corporation. All rights reserved. CyberSource Corporation ("CyberSource") furnishes this document and the software described in this document under the applicable agreement between the reader of this document ("You") and CyberSource ("Agreement"). You may use this document and/or software only in accordance with the terms of the Agreement. Except as expressly set forth in the Agreement, the information contained in this document is subject to change without notice and therefore should not be interpreted in any way as a guarantee or warranty by CyberSource. CyberSource assumes no responsibility or liability for any errors that may appear in this document. The copyrighted software that accompanies this document is licensed to You for use only in strict accordance with the Agreement. You should read the Agreement carefully before using the software. Except as permitted by the Agreement, You may not reproduce any part of this document, store this document in a retrieval system, or transmit this document, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, recording, or otherwise, without the prior written consent of CyberSource.
    [Show full text]
  • Singular Value Analysis of Cryptograms Author(S): Cleve Moler and Donald Morrison Source: the American Mathematical Monthly, Vol
    Singular Value Analysis of Cryptograms Author(s): Cleve Moler and Donald Morrison Source: The American Mathematical Monthly, Vol. 90, No. 2 (Feb., 1983), pp. 78-87 Published by: Mathematical Association of America Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/2975804 . Accessed: 14/03/2011 13:52 Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of JSTOR's Terms and Conditions of Use, available at . http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp. JSTOR's Terms and Conditions of Use provides, in part, that unless you have obtained prior permission, you may not download an entire issue of a journal or multiple copies of articles, and you may use content in the JSTOR archive only for your personal, non-commercial use. Please contact the publisher regarding any further use of this work. Publisher contact information may be obtained at . http://www.jstor.org/action/showPublisher?publisherCode=maa. Each copy of any part of a JSTOR transmission must contain the same copyright notice that appears on the screen or printed page of such transmission. JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected]. Mathematical Association of America is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to The American Mathematical Monthly. http://www.jstor.org 78 CLEVEMOLER AND DONALD MORRISON [February newsletter culminated in the creation of our very successful, very well-received newsletter, FOCUS.
    [Show full text]
  • Cryptography: Symmetric Encryption Unit 3
    CS Matters in Maryland http://csmatters.org/curriculum/display/lesson/X... (http://csmatters.org) 3 - 11 0b11 - 0b1011 Cryptography: Symmetric Encryption Unit 3. Information and the Internet Revision Date: Jan 16, 2017 (Version 2.1) Duration: 1 50-minute session Lesson Summary Summary Students are introduced to the topic of cryptography and learn to perform two encryption techniques. The students will identify the role of the algorithm and key in the encryption process. Students will use abstraction to see the general process used in symmetric encryption. The students will consider the strength of ciphers and the importance of keeping the key a secret. Outcomes Students will understand how encryption is used to keep data secure. Students will learn how encrypting and decrypting data is accomplished using an algorithm and a key. Students will understand why the key must be kept a secret. Overview 1. Getting Started (5 min) - Journal 2. Introduction to Content (15 min) 1. Lesson Motivation [5 min] 2. Presenting the Key Concepts [10 min] 3. Guided Activities (25 min) 1. Practice [15 min] 2. Follow Up: Analyzing the Strength of Ciphers [5 min] 3. Follow Up: Defining Symmetric Encryption and Seeing the Abstraction in 1 of 7 2/7/20, 1:24 PM CS Matters in Maryland http://csmatters.org/curriculum/display/lesson/X... Symmetric Encryption Systems [5 min] 4. Wrap Up (5 min) - Journal Learning Objectives CSP Objectives Math Common Core Practice: MP1: Make sense of problems and persevere in solving them. MP2: Reason abstractly and quantitatively. MP8: Look for and express regularity in repeated reasoning.
    [Show full text]
  • A Closer View of Running-Key Cipher on Natural Languages and Its Extension for New Applications in Cryptography*
    THE PUBLISHING HOUSE PROCEEDINGS OF THE ROMANIAN ACADEMY, Series A, OF THE ROMANIAN ACADEMY Volume 13, Number 2/2012, pp. 157–166 A CLOSER VIEW OF RUNNING-KEY CIPHER ON NATURAL LANGUAGES AND ITS EXTENSION FOR NEW APPLICATIONS IN CRYPTOGRAPHY* Adriana VLAD1,2, Azeem ILYAS1, Adrian LUCA1 1“Politehnica” University of Bucharest, Faculty of Electronics, Telecommunications and Information Technology, 1-3, Iuliu Maniu Bvd. Bucharest 6, Romania 2The Research Institute for Artificial Intelligence, Romanian Academy, 13, Calea 13 Septembrie, Bucharest 5, Romania E-mail: [email protected], [email protected] The paper supports a debate concerning the meaning and the importance of redundancy and ergodicity in cryptography. The discussion is mainly organized around a very thought-provoking enciphering method, running-key cipher. The paper comes with a new view of running-key method which permits to resume and extend it for ergodic sources in order to provide good quality key generators for cryptography. We first apply the running-key method on natural language and then we extend it on logistic map. Finally some conclusions are drawn even for image enciphering. Key words: running-key cipher, noisy channel, redundancy, ergodic source, logistic map, image encryption. 1. INTRODUCTION In 1945, Claude Shannon wrote his results concerning what is so specific in a message source that makes possible to break a cipher in a classified paper, [1]. The content of the paper appeared in the open literature in 1949, [2] – a fundamental paper in the field; since then, cryptography turned from an art into science. The notions of entropy, redundancy, ergodicity and uncertainty channel that Shannon worked out for his evolving information theory [3] had found a perfect support in cryptography both for their perceiving and for their utility in practice.
    [Show full text]
  • SOLVING CIPHER SECRETS Edited by M
    SOLVING CIPHER SECRETS Edited by M. E. Ohaver TRY YOUR WITS ON THE GREAT CODES AND CRYPTOGRAMS IN WHICH MEN HAVE MASKED THEIR MESSAGES OF LIFE AND DEATH IS PROUD to add this new department to the notable achievements of FLYNN'S. No man can touch practical detective problems without soon coming in contact with some sort of code or cipher writing. Sometimes it is very simple, a mere trans• position of letters or words of the sort that every schoolboy would soon solve. Frequently, however, the cryptogram is blind and complicated beyond the under• standing of any except the most experienced and ingenious of experts. Here is one phase in which the fiction writer has still to learn from fact. The examples that Mr. Ohaver gives are of ciphers actually used. Many of them are in connection with great historic events. There are few dases in fiction showing greater ingenuity than is exhibited here. Codes play a larger part in the world to-day probably than ever before. The development of commerce, the growth of complex international relationships, the crossing of military and political wires, all have laid greater emphasis on the need of secret writing—of masking the meaning in innocent words that shall be clear only to the one for whom they are intended. The examples given here cover the world, historically and geographically. Here's a chance to try your wits. They have all been solved, and once the key is found the solution is comparatively simple in each case. Work it out and send your solution to the editor of the Cipher Department of FLYNN'S, New York.
    [Show full text]