code
Word or phrase replaced with a different word or phrase to keep the original word a secret!
cipher
a special type of code
cryptography
branch of engineering which relies entirely on mathematics to keep messages a secret.
encryption
process of encoding or creating the cipher
decryption
converting or transforming the cipher to the original word or code
substitution cipher
also known as the Caesar cipher
plaintext
the original message
shift key
pre-selected number of positions farther along in the alphabet
example: shift key 3
A would equal D
A B C D
brute force
known by codebreakers as trial and error
The Caesar Cipher was and is easy to decode by patterns using frequency distribution.
statistics
is a branch of applied mathematics dealing with data collection, organization, analysis, interpretation and presentation.