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The following is a test on security. See how many points you can gain.

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Vigenère

An improved code was developed by Vigenère, where a different row is used for each character encryption, and is polyalphabetic cipher as it uses a number of cipher alphabets.hen the way that the user moves between the rows must be agreed before encryption. This can be achieved with a code word, which defines the sequence of the rows. For example the codeword GREEN could be used which defined that the rows used were: Row 6 (G), Row 17 (R), Row 4 (E), Row 4 (E), Row 13 (N), Row 6 (G), Row 17 (R), and so on (see Table). Thus the message is converted as:

Keyword        GREENGREENGREE
Plaintext     hellohowareyou
Ciphertext    NVPPBNFAEEKPSY

The great advantage of this type of code is that the same plaintext  character will be encrypted with different values, depending on the position of the keyword. For example, if the keyword is GREEN, ‘e’ can be encrypted as ‘K’ (for G), ‘V’ (for R), ‘I’ (for E) and ‘R’ (for N). To improve the security, the greater the size of the code word, the more the rows that can be included in the encryption  process. Also, it is not possible to decipher the code by a frequency  analysis, as letters will change their coding depending on the current position of the keyword. It is also safe from analysis of common two- and three-letter occurrences, if the keysize is relatively long. For example ‘ee’ could be encrypted with ‘KV’ (for GR), ‘VI’ (for RE), ‘II’ (for EE), ‘IR’ (for EN) and ‘RK’ (for NG) [Example].

Plain a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z 
1     b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z a
2     c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z a b
3     d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z a b c
4     e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z a b c d 
5     f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z a b c d e
6     g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z a b c d e f
7     h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z a b c d e f g
8     i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z a b c d e f g h
9     j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z a b c d e f g h i
10    k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z a b c d e f g h i j
11    l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z a b c d e f g h i j k
12    m n o p q r s t u v w x y z a b c d e f g h i j k l
13    n o p q r s t u v w x y z a b c d e f g h i j k l m
14    o p q r s t u v w x y z a b c d e f g h i j k l m n
15    p q r s t u v w x y z a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o
16    q r s t u v w x y z a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p
17    r s t u v w x y z a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q
18    s t u v w x y z a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r
19    t u v w x y z a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s
20    u v w x y z a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t
21    v w x y z a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u
22    w x y z a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v
23    x y z a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w
24    y z a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x
25    z a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y

For a keyword of KING, determine the following Vigenère codes:

Coding

Answer

Result

Word is:  orange

Incorrect

Word is: feature

Incorrect

Word is: sad

Incorrect
  Score 0

If you are struggling, here the mapping for KING:

Plain a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z 
 6    g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z a b c d e f
 8    i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z a b c d e f g h
10    k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z a b c d e f g h i j
13    n o p q r s t u v w x y z a b c d e f g h i j k l m

For example phase becomes zpnyo, as p (read row 10 for K) gives Z, h (read row 8 for I) gives P, a (read row 13 for N) gives n), and so on.

If you are struggling here is a Vigenère Calculator [Link].

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