PART 1: UNDERSTANDING CRYPTOGRAPHY

SHIFT KEY
1. A shift key of 13 is used to encode the message "MYSTERY". What
is the ciphertext?

ANS: ZLFGREL

2. The message "TEMASEK" results in the ciphertext "CNVJBNT".

What is the shift key?

ANS: 9

Encoding and Decoding with Integers

A B C D E F G H I J K L M
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12
N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36

Decode the message: 1, 4, 36, 7, 0, 15, 15, 24

ANS: BE HAPPY

By wrapping the numbers in the clockwise direction, messages

can also be encoded using integers greater than 36. This
wrapping can continue up to infinity.

Decode the message: 6, 54, 41, 37, 19

ANS : GREAT
PART 2: EXPLORING HILL CIPHER
4 5
Given the encryption key K=
,
3 4
4 5
the decryption key will be K-1 =
.
3 4
IGK2Q8W36YLJO4XLXC when converted into a string of integers
using the table above, will be

8, 6, 10, 28, 16, 34, 22, 29, 32, 24,11, 9, 14, 30, 23, 11, 23, 2
4 5 8 10 16 22 32 11 14 23 23

x

3 4 6 28 34 29 24 9 30 11 2
2 100 106 57 8 1 94 37 82
=

0 82 88 50 0 3 78 25 61

mod 37
2 11 5 17 8 36 17 0 8


0 8 14 13 0 3 4 12 13

CALIFORNIA DREAMIN

Using Hill Cipher and the table above, the word

"ENCYCLOPEDIA" will be encrypted.

After converting the word "ENCYCLOPEDIA" into a string of

integers, it will be

4, 13, 2, 24, 2, 11, 14, 15, 4, 3, 8, 0

Group integers into a 2x6 matrix to become

4 2 2 14 4 8

.
13 24 11 15 3 0
Let this message be encrypted to be P. Hence P =
4 2 2 14 4 8


13 24 11 15 3 0
2 3
An encryption key of K =
 is used to "hide" the
3 5
message.
To encrypt, pre-multiply P by K :
2 3 4 2 2 14 4 8

x

3 5 13 24 11 15 3 0
47 76 37 73 17 16 10 2 0 36 17 16
=


77 126 61 117 27 24 3 15 24 6 27 24

mod 37

KDCPAY GR1QY

Solution(decryption):

Convert KDCPAY GR1QY into integers:

10, 3, 2, 15, 0, 24, 36, 6, 17, 27, 16, 24

10 2 0 36 17 16
Group integers into 2x6 matrix:

3 15 24 6 27 24
5 3
The decryption key will be K-1=

3 2
5 3 10 2 0 36 17 16

x

3 2 3 15 24 6 27 24
41 35 72 162 4 8 4 2 2 14 4 8
=


24 24 48 96 3 0 13 24 11 15 3 0
Mod 37

ENCYCLOPEDIA
PART 3: REFLECTIONS AND FURTHER READING
I have heard of cryptography before this lesson and after
doing these tasks, I found out more about this field and other
forms of cryptography. I think such a specialised field is developed
so that important information such as trade secrets and
government plans would not be known by competitors easily to
protect the users of such private and secret information.

I think each method of encryption has its own pros and cons,
such as being easier to encrypt and being more difficult to be
understood by others for some of them. For example, I think that
one of the advantages of the shift cipher is that decoded
messages would be difficult to decipher without having the shift
key as they would probably not form a proper word after being
encrypted. Meanwhile, integer encoding and decoding has its
advantage being easier to be decoded. However, this also gives
a higher chance for the interceptor of the message to
understand the ciphertext. In my opinion, I think that Hill Cipher is
the "strongest" way of encryption. This is because it has a lot of
steps to it and is very complicated, thus making it difficult for
intruders to understand and decode the messages. However, this
is also an disadvantage in the sense that it is very tedious to both
encrypt and decrypt the messages. Also, there are also many
chances for careless mistakes such as calculation errors during the
process of encryption and decryption.

I think for strong encryption, formulas needed for decoding

the ciphertext must not be able to be easy to guess or predict,
with such an example being the number encryption and
decryption. Also, in this field of cryptography, I think that one of
the most important things is accurate calculations as every
number matters a lot in the ciphertext and even one single error
may cause the inability to decode the message correctly.
 During this process of encryption and decryption, one of the
greatest problems I faced was calculation errors, especially when
using the Hill Cipher as it requires the calculation of relatively large
numbers. This creates more difficulty to encrypt and decrypt the
message as wrong letters found will affect the spelling of the
whole word, thus giving a wrong message.

I do not find this task very difficult as the greatest difficulty of

all was only the calculation. My friends were also able to decrypt
the message correctly. What I enjoyed most in this task was
actually the decrypting of messages encrypted using the Hill
Cipher. This was because the process of decryption was relatively
challenging, yet interesting at the same time. I think this task can
be improved by giving us a few more methods of encryption to
explore with.

Matrices can also be by geologists for seismic surveys. Also,

they are used for computing graphs and statistics in scientific
studies, and is sometimes used in computer animation as well.
Matrices are also used in calculation of gross domestic products in
economics, thereby helping in calculation for producing goods
more efficiently.