A Challengers Handbook

by

Caesum

Encryption

This will almost certainly be the longest section and so I will split this chapter up:

  • Codes which considers simple encoding schemes - morse code, braille, semaphore, telephone codes, base64.
  • Simple Ciphers which considers caesar shift ciphers, pigpen, atbash.
  • Substition Ciphers which considers many methods of solving substitution ciphers.
  • Advanced Ciphers which considers some other ciphering methods and ways of attacking them.
  • Analysis Techniques which considers some simple techniques when faced with an unknown cipher.
  • If you're interested in some more tutorials and solved problems then grab these. Some time ago I started to write a more comprehensive version of the handbook and these were for inclusion, but as with everything in life it never got finished so I decided to put them up here anyway.

    For further reading I will recommend:

  • Helen Fouche Gaines - Cryptanalysis published by Dover, ISBN 0-486-20097-3. This book is excellent, and has the added benefit of being extremely cheap.
  • Lanakis lessons are interesting although they tend to be a bit short and try to cover a lot.
  • If you are interested in the history of cryptography then the definitive text is Kahn.
  • For source code and details of modern block ciphers - DES, etc then Bruce Schneirs Applied Cryptography book is best known.

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