16/12/2014

How to Use Math to Decrypt a Secret Messages

How to decrypt a secret message using math
Before we take you to the steps it's better to understand the Cryptography.
Introduction: Cryptography is the process of data translation into a secret code. On the other hand, Cryptography is a mothod of storing and transmitting data in a particular form so that only those for whom it is intended can read and process it. Cryptography involves into two processes, one in Encryption and the other in Decryption. Encryption: Encryption is the conversion of any data into unreadable form, called ciphertext, which cannot be easily understood by everyone except authorized parties. The term is most often associated with scrambling plaintext which referred to as cleartext into ciphertext this process is called encryption. e.g you've a girlfriend and her real names is Kaitlin but having a fear of her muscular brother(s), you always call her my heart, my soul, sweetie etc. That's means you have encrypted her name. Decryption: Decryption is the process of taking encoded/encrypted text or other data and converting it back into readable text/data that you or the computer are able to read and understand it. e.g (repeat the above example in opposite direction). Who Uses The Cryptography? Cryptography is usually used by the Government Spy Agents, Criminals, Hackers and other sensitive organisations in order to protect their data from being leaked.
You might have seen the army or police operators while talking on their wireless set. They use their secret codes to transmitte their messages securely. In world war II, Cryptography was used by many countries. You might think that the author is wasting your time by writting the stories. But as a true believer, believe me it would help you alot to understand the article very well.

How to Decrypt a Secret Message
Suppose, you are a police officer, Army officer, Cheif of an party or whatever. You pull out a small notepad that was issued to you before leaving on your trip. Its pages contain sequences of completely random numbers between zero and twenty-five. Armed with your notepad and the scrambled secret message, you begin the decryption process. Here’s how it works. Start by looking up the first random number in your notepad. In this case it’s two and then cross it out so you don’t accidentally use it again. This first number is used to decrypt the first letter of your or your enemies message. Beginning with the first letter in your message, P count forward through the alphabet two characters Q is one and R is two. So R is the first letter of your decoded message. All you have to do is repeat the process for each of the final two letters of your message. You look-up the next random number in your notepad nineteen. So start at the letter B the second letter in the scrambled message and count forward nineteen letters until, eventually, you reach the letter U This is the second letter in your decoded message. Finally, for the last letter A you see the next random number in your notepad is thirteen. You count forward thirteen letters from A and arrive at N. So, you’ve now got your entire message decrypted and it says Run. right?

The One-Time Pad Method of Encryption
Before we get to that, let’s take a minute to talk about this encryption method called the one-time pad that played a major role in sending secret messages throughout much of the 20th century. The name one-time pad comes from the fact that the series of random numbers in the notepad must be used only one time. If a pad is reused, patterns can emerge that give away the random numbers in the pad, and the encryption can then be broken quite easily by an intercepting party. Additionally, these numbers must be absolutely random (not just sort of random) or, once again, patterns can develop that make it easy to figure out the contents of the pad and, if someone knows the numbers in your pad, your encryption is useless.

Secret Agent Math II
Now, let’s get back to the story. Recall that you’ve just deciphered a secret message telling you to Run You ponder for a moment whether or not the message is a joke. if your running was that urgent, why wouldn’t your colleague just yell? But then you remember that this colleague is known for strictly over-following standard industry encryption protocols, so you realize it is a real message and make a mad dash for the door. But having taken so long to comprehend the urgency of the message, you’re grabbed and hustled into the trunk of a car and driven away leaving your colleague to ponder the folly of his ways. Apparently, he now realizes, encryption isn’t always necessary sometimes simple solutions are better. But, your alter-ego’s misfortune in our drama is your own good fortune in real life since, if for some bizarre reason you ever need to secretly share information with someone, you now can do it using a one-time pad.

The Math Behind One-Time Pad Encryption

Before wrapping-up, let’s take a minute to talk a little more about the math behind one-time pad encryption. Start by assigning each letter of the alphabet a corresponding integer value between 1 and 26. A=1, since A is the first letter of the alphabet, B=2, since B is the second letter, and so on until you get to Z=26, the last letter of the alphabet. If you take the integer value that corresponds to a particular scrambled letter in your encrypted message (say the letter is P with an integer value of 16) and add it to the associated random number from a one-time pad (say the number is two), then you get a new integer in this case 16, 2=18 which can then be converted back into the letter R which you’ll recognize to be the first decrypted letter in the message from our article.

How to Solve Math Problems

That’s all well and good, but here’s an interesting case: What would happen if the scrambled letter you were trying to decrypt was Y and the corresponding random number was 25? If we count forward through the alphabet from Y we’ll obviously get to Z but then what? Well, in this case, the answer is to loop back around and start again at A That’s the way the one-time pad system is defined to work. So you could start at Y count forward to Z jump back to A and then proceed 23 more letters forward and eventually arrive at X But how about this: Instead of counting forward 25 letters from Y couldn’t you also just count backward one letter? And isn’t counting backward one letter a lot easier? And a lot less error prone too? It is. So what’s my point here? Well, in math, as in life, there’s usually more than one way to solve a problem and some ways are easier than others. So here’s the quick tip work smart. Simply yelling Run. instead of going to the trouble of sending an encrypted message would be smart. Counting one letter backward through the alphabet instead of twenty-five forward would be smart too. Think before acting and you’ll solve more problems while working less that’s a pretty tough combination to beat.

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