Basic Cryptography & Techniques

From ancient times, people used many cryptology techniques to secure their important data & information. However, some worked extremely unique, some could not survive. Cryptology is a study of data security and cryptography is the method. Nowadays, most security systems have secure data connectivity, access codes, coders, and decoders to break the data. Besides, crypto means a vague or hazy material that covers certain information or data-stream, as Greeks said. In this short article, I’ll introduce some basic cryptography techniques and further advancements. Good for beginners who’re studying information security and data manipulation as well as cyber geeks.

► Text to numbers

Great scholar and architect, Leonardo Da Vinci invented the first cryptic sequence of a sentence or his daily logs. The method was called mirror image or mirror writings. Later in the First World War, the Russian information technologists transformed letters into numbers to send a telegram message from one point to another. The simple format of this technique was just like the following-

A	B	C	D	E	F	G	H	I	J	K	L	M
1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13
N	O	P	Q	R	S	T	U	V	W	X	Y	Z
14	15	16	17	18	19	20	21	22	23	24	25	26

The corresponding English alphabets represent sequential numbers. So if anyone sends a message like ‘Hello World’, the encoder turns it to ’85 1212 15 23151812 4’. When the letter has a two-digit number and the next one is the same, it can be placed together like 1212 or 23151812. However, single-digit numbers must be unique and placed simply. This famous method was the easiest one but lengthy because anyone who knows basic cryptology could break it in a moment. Nevertheless, computers or proper electronic device wasn’t invented at that time so this method got huge positive reviews and popularity. Soon the Yugoslav surveillance and security technologists figured the secret, and the method didn’t work well in later eras.

► Text to modified numbers

The second method of cryptography was the same as the previous one but a little altered. Polish surveillance team altered some corresponding alphabet to modified numbers. This method was very critical and brainstorming because of the following strategies-

·         The first letter of any message is counted as 1. So, only the first letter was initiated, the rests are numbers.

·         Assuming the first letter as 1, you have to form a table sequentially with increments.

Sound weird! Yes, it is. Unless I show you an example, it will be weirder. Let’s be it: suppose a telegram text looks like ‘Run n hide’. The first letter is ‘R’, and is counted as ‘1’. Now set up the table.

A	B	C	D	E	F	G	H	I	J	K	L	M
10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19	20	21	22
N	O	P	Q	R	S	T	U	V	W	X	Y	Z
23	24	25	26	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9

Now, the message ‘Run n hide’ comes with ‘R423 23 17181314’. Moreover, our famous ‘Hello world’ probably be ‘H24 55 8 168 11 523’ if I calculated right. This was better cryptography than the conventional text to number method however this method had some pitfalls. The main drawback of this method was- stream length. For a simple message, it took a long stream of numbers. Cryptographers took a lot of time to solve and even on & off some wrong messages were revealed.

► Page numbers to text

Have you ever watched the movie ‘Angels & Demons’ or ‘The Davinci code’? Or, read these books? Anyways, these two provisions can reveal lots of darkness in your mind. Not homogeneous but the ideas are alike. This page number to text method is ancient cryptography from medieval ages. Scholars used particular verses or books to send a message or decrypt messages. For example, the Old testament or new Bible verse was severely used to send texts. This method was great because no clumsy number-text decryption or vice versa. Furthermore, a total word or sentence can be sent off as some simple bookmarks.

► 2P (to P) cryptography- a new era

This new technology cryptography or cipher code was invented in late 2012 and is still used in some remote areas of Europe. The major privilege of this ciphering is: it is simple but smart and unbreakable unless someone told you how to. The method is very simple. We have 26 alphabetical letters and we use simple decimal numbers to mark those all. But like a shifting strategy- the first 10 letters (from A to J) are assigned as 0 (zero) to 9, respectively. The 11th letter (letter K) should be assigned as ‘A’, and so on correspondingly. Henceforth, the final letter Z will be now ‘P’, in this sequence. That’s why this method is called ‘to P’ or 2P ciphering. Let’s elaborate with a tabular format-

A

B

C

D

E

F

G

H

I

J

K

L

M

0

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

A

B

C

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

The most fascinating features or impacts of this 2p cryptography method are-

·         You can send huge data streams or sentences, even encrypted documents.

·         Unbreakable because the breaker has to know which method is this?

·         Simple algorithm and can be programmed with top-class computer languages.

·         Mostly used for remote areas of Europe i.e, Poland, Austria, Slovakia, Germany, Croatia, and France downtowns.

·         Concise, secure, and robust method for short messages.

However, this method has some pitfalls. Not that malfunctioning but sometimes seems odd.

·         The zero (0) and the letter ‘O’ look-alike hence wrong deciphering can occur.

·         Receivers have to know about this method before. No newbie can decipher.

Let’s see an example with this method for clarifications. Say, we’re trying to send a message like ‘send reinforcements to our base ASAP’. It will come with ‘i4d3 h48d5eh24c4dji je ekh 10i4 0i0f’.

► Modified 2P cryptography- 2Q era

This method is similar to 2p cryptography with a minor change. We ignore the initial zero digit and start with 1 only. So, the table turns to-

A

B

C

D

E

F

G

H

I

J

K

L

M

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

A

B

C

D

N

O

P

Q

R

S

T

U

V

W

X

Y

Z

E

F

G

H

I

J

K

L

M

N

O

P

Q

It ended up with ‘Q’ hence we called this ‘to Q’ or 2q cryptography. Let’s check the previous example of 2p cryptography.

Main message: send reinforcements to our base ASAP.

Encrypted message: j5e4 i59e6fi35d5ekj kf fli 21j5 1j1g.

Pitfalls everywhere in everything nowadays. These 2 methods have some as well. Though these pitfalls are minor but for smart programmers and decipher, both aren’t that sufficient. Let’s see the pitfall-

·         Decrypted messages have no letters from Q to Z (2p) and R to Z (2q).

·         Intermediate decoders can identify the lacking of 9 letters and figure the code out.

·         Takes much time if in-hand deciphering.

Bottom Line

From basic level to advance, lots of encryption and decryption technologies are developed. For defense systems of a country, the surveillance systems of airlines, radar technologies, smart security systems, cybersecurity, and home security; cryptology has an esteemed role as well as demands. Among the techniques, I’ve mentioned here in this article are still functioning somewhere in our network. Advanced integrated sophisticated servers occupy core security encoders and decoders to create rough messages for acknowledgment in recent days. Later I’ll discuss advanced cryptology techniques. Share your comments, advice, suggestions and if you like this article, you can share this with your friends. Keep innovating and seeking technologies.