Wednesday, February 28, 2007

Cipher, Crypt, and Code: Definition of Terms

Before setting up this blog, I never thought the differences of these terms: cipher, crypt or cryptogram, and code.

So I searched Wikipedia...

For me then, they were all crypts and codes, and that crypts is just a better word for code...I was wrong...

Crypts or cryptograms are basically letter substitutions, or could be images for letters and logically decrypted by starting with one-letter words such as "i" and "a" IF the message is in English...

For more info on Cryptograms including its history...

A cipher (or cypher) needs a key to be deciphered, and a complex set is based on algorithm. But you need a key (which normally changes) to crack a cipher. The ciphers I've developed are yet simple ones as there is only one key (though that can change). More about it here...

What about code? A code is a method used to transform a message into an obscured form, preventing those not in on the secret from understanding what is actually transmitted. A code needs a codebook for decoding...and example I just thought of is the Morse Code...where a dot and a dash is a code for the letter A.

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