How Julius Caesar used cryptography
How Julius Caesar used cryptography
Hello,I am digicrypt and thank you for checking out my “Cryptology Series”! If you haven’t done so already, go to my #introduceyourself post here. The post will give you a bit of my background and help explain what I plan to do with this blog.
You can view part one of my Cryptology Series: Cryptology Series Part 1: Getting the Basics here
I recently launched the Cryptography Challenge
The winner of this challenge was @ darth-azrael he was the first person to solve my encrypted message. In order to encrypt the text I used one of the oldest cryptographic methods know as a Caesar Cipher. Now I want to take some time to explain the history and operation of the Caesar Cipher.
"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. For example, with a left shift of 3, D would be replaced by A, E would become B, and so on. The method is named after Julius Caesar, who used it in his private correspondence."
100-44 BC Julius Caesar developed a simple method of shifting the alphabet
The alphabet was shifted by 3 positions
For example the word Steemit would become Vwhhplw
This method although now seemingly primitive proved effective at the time and was even modified to be used again in the 1980s on message boards with ROT13.
ROT 13 and information about classical cryptography methods and their development will be covered in Part 2 of my Cryptology Series "The History of Cryptography".
I hope you learned something new and I hope you will stick with me for Part 2 “The History of Cryptography” which will be really fun and interesting!
Your feedback is really important to me, please comment and let me know if you liked this post or have questions.
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Digicrypt,
Signing Off
The Caesar cipher is always one of the first things you get introduced to when studying cryptography, of course (hopefully) followed by details about how it gets destroyed by even the most elementary cryptanalysis techniques. But it's a great place to start!
Looking forward to reading more, thanks!
haha yeah, you would not want to rely on it for security, most children could break it. I do think it is important to teach people from the beginning with simple methods before moving on to the complex. Another reason I like covering the caesar cipher is because of ROT 13 which was used on message boards in the 1980s as well as the fact that is a great example of a substitution cipher...but dont worry everything in my series will get more modern and complex as we go...must crawl before walk. Thanks for your comments, glad you find this stuff interesting!
Very interesting. Followed. Upvoted.
Thank you!
You are welcome