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Code and ciphers: Julius Caesar, the Enigma and the internet

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3<br />

Polyalphabetic systems<br />

Streng<strong>the</strong>ning <strong>Julius</strong> <strong>Caesar</strong>: Vigenère <strong>ciphers</strong><br />

The weakness of <strong>the</strong> <strong>Julius</strong> <strong>Caesar</strong> system is that <strong>the</strong>re are only 25 possible<br />

decrypts <strong>and</strong> so <strong>the</strong> cryptanalyst can try <strong>the</strong>m all. Life can obviously be<br />

made more difficult for him if we increase <strong>the</strong> number of cases that must<br />

be tried before success can be assured. We can do this if, instead of shifting<br />

each letter by a fixed number of places in <strong>the</strong> alphabet, we shift <strong>the</strong> letters<br />

by a variable amount depending upon <strong>the</strong>ir position in <strong>the</strong> text. Of course<br />

<strong>the</strong>re must be a rule for deciding <strong>the</strong> amount of <strong>the</strong> shift in each case o<strong>the</strong>rwise<br />

even an authorised recipient won’t be able to decrypt <strong>the</strong> message.<br />

A simple rule is to use several fixed shifts in sequence. For example, if<br />

instead of a fixed shift of 19 as was used in <strong>the</strong> message<br />

COME AT ONCE<br />

in <strong>the</strong> last chapter <strong>and</strong> which enciphered to<br />

VHFX TM HGVX<br />

we use two shifts, say 19 <strong>and</strong> 5, alternately, so that <strong>the</strong> first, third, fifth etc.<br />

letters are shifted 19 places <strong>and</strong> <strong>the</strong> second, fourth etc. are shifted 5 places<br />

<strong>the</strong>n <strong>the</strong> cipher now becomes<br />

VTFJ TY HSVJ.<br />

If we replace <strong>the</strong> space character by Z in <strong>the</strong> message <strong>and</strong> use three shifts,<br />

say 19, 5 <strong>and</strong> 11, in sequence <strong>the</strong> plaintext becomes<br />

COMEZATZONCE.<br />

The cipher is now<br />

[28]<br />

VTXXELMEZGHP

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