Cryptology and Cipher Codes
Brittany Lewis Cryptology and Cipher Codes Math Fair Report
In a world where identity theft is on the rise, hackers are hard at work trying to get people’s credit card numbers, and where companies are getting your information to sell you unwanted things, tight security has become a large factor of keeping the personal and confidential information of our society safe. Cryptology and Cipher codes are commonly used ways to keep confidential information protected by preventing people not in on the secret from understanding what is being transmitted. Cryptology is the science of secure communication which is also the encoding and decoding of data. Cipher codes are more complicated because it is a method used to transform a message into an obscure form. The use of these secured messages has been dated back to the first societies of the world where they were used for many of the same reasons they are today. The first use of written cryptology was believed to take place at about 1900 B.C when an Egyptian scribe first used a non-standard form of hieroglyphics in his writing. Then in 1500 B.C in Mesopotamia (common day Iraq), an enciphered message in cuneiform was used to conceal a formula to make glazes for pottery. In the years 500 through 600 B.C, Hebrew scribes used a reverse alphabet simple substitution cipher to write the book of Jeremiah which was known as ATBASH. The Greeks used a device called a scytale (rhymes with Italy) in 487 B.C which consisted of a strip of leather that was wrapped and then written on then used as a belt which the recipient would be wearing as well and that would decode the message. The famous Julius Caesar used cryptology to keep government communications private throughout 50 to 60 B.C. Even the first president of the United States George Washington used encoded messages to send to his fellow soldiers. Therefore, cryptology and cipher codes have played large roles in the confidentiality of societies in the past
In a world where identity theft is on the rise, hackers are hard at work trying to get people’s credit card numbers, and where companies are getting your information to sell you unwanted things, tight security has become a large factor of keeping the personal and confidential information of our society safe. Cryptology and Cipher codes are commonly used ways to keep confidential information protected by preventing people not in on the secret from understanding what is being transmitted. Cryptology is the science of secure communication which is also the encoding and decoding of data. Cipher codes are more complicated because it is a method used to transform a message into an obscure form. The use of these secured messages has been dated back to the first societies of the world where they were used for many of the same reasons they are today. The first use of written cryptology was believed to take place at about 1900 B.C when an Egyptian scribe first used a non-standard form of hieroglyphics in his writing. Then in 1500 B.C in Mesopotamia (common day Iraq), an enciphered message in cuneiform was used to conceal a formula to make glazes for pottery. In the years 500 through 600 B.C, Hebrew scribes used a reverse alphabet simple substitution cipher to write the book of Jeremiah which was known as ATBASH. The Greeks used a device called a scytale (rhymes with Italy) in 487 B.C which consisted of a strip of leather that was wrapped and then written on then used as a belt which the recipient would be wearing as well and that would decode the message. The famous Julius Caesar used cryptology to keep government communications private throughout 50 to 60 B.C. Even the first president of the United States George Washington used encoded messages to send to his fellow soldiers. Therefore, cryptology and cipher codes have played large roles in the confidentiality of societies in the past
Bibliography: 1) Krystek, Lee. “The Unmuseum-Cryptology.” The Museum of UnNatural Mystery. 2000. Web.11.Nov.2011. http://www.unmuseum.org/cipher.htm. 2) Modular Arithmetic and Cryptology.” Web Catcher. Web. 11.Nov.2011. http://cs-netlab-ol.lynchburg.edu/sources/discmath/crypto.htm 3) “Braingle:Codes, Ciphers, Encryption and Cryptography.” Briangle Brain Teasers, Puzzles, Riddles Trivia and Games. 1999. Web. 11.Nov.2011. http://www.braingle.com/brainteasers/codes/index.php 4) “Cryptography.” Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Web.11.Nov.2011