Programming Encryption Algorithms

Using Caesar & Vigenere Ciphers

Encryption is the process of converting a plain text message into cipher text which can be decoded back into the original message. While security is an afterthought for many PC users, it’s a major priority for businesses of any size. Encryption is a way to keep your data safe. There are many different encryption algorithms being used today, some of the most regularly used are RSA, Triple DES, Blowfish, and AES. Two of the simplest and most widely known encryption techniques are Caesar Cipher, and Vignere Cipher. The two encryption methods we will focus on in this article are the Caesar Cipher, and Vignere Cipher algorithms.

Caesar Cipher

The Caesar cipher is a type of substitution encryption. It is considered one of the easiest algorithms to implement. It was used by and is named after Julius Caesar. This cipher is however easily broken through different techniques such as frequency analysis.

Substitution encryption is a type of encryption where some letter is replaced by another letter some constant number away.

The action of a Caesar cipher is to replace each plain text letter with a different one a fixed number of places down the alphabet. The cipher illustrated here uses a left shift of three, so that (for example) each occurrence of E in the plaintext becomes B in the cipher text.

How Encryption Works using (Caesar…