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Understanding Caesar Encryption Basics

Caesar encryption is a simple substitution cipher that involves shifting the alphabet by a fixed number of letters. Julius Caesar used this method to encrypt secret messages to his army. For example, with a 3 letter shift the plaintext "MR CARTER IS A COOL TEACHER" would be encrypted as "PU FDUWHU LV D FRRO WHDFKHU". Modern encryption is more complex but still protects privacy like putting a message in an envelope.

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117 views1 page

Understanding Caesar Encryption Basics

Caesar encryption is a simple substitution cipher that involves shifting the alphabet by a fixed number of letters. Julius Caesar used this method to encrypt secret messages to his army. For example, with a 3 letter shift the plaintext "MR CARTER IS A COOL TEACHER" would be encrypted as "PU FDUWHU LV D FRRO WHDFKHU". Modern encryption is more complex but still protects privacy like putting a message in an envelope.

Uploaded by

hernawan_saputro
Copyright
© Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Caesar Encryption

Caesar encryption uses a simple substitution cipher. You simply choose how many
letters to shift the alphabet by, and substitute letters appropriately. Caesar encryption
is named after the Roman general Julius Caesar. He used to encrypt secret messages
to his army using this method.

Example (using a 3 letter shift):


Alphabet: 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
Shift by 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

Plaintext: MR CARTER IS A COOL TEACHER


Ciphertext: PU FDUWHU LV D FRRO WHDFKHU

Notice that in the example above you can easily guess that the single “D” in the
ciphertext is going to be the word “A”. To protect against guesses like that, write your
ciphertext in groups of letters.

Try this example, using an 8 letter shift:

QABIG CXDMZ GTIBM IBVQO PBZMI LQVOJ WWSA

To decrypt, write out the alphabet, then write out another alphabet underneath starting
eight letters ahead. So, A=I, B=J, and so on. Decrypt from there. Notice that because
letters are organized in groups of five, simple words like “A” and “THE” aren't obvious.

Substitution ciphers can also be used with symbols instead of letters. To see and read
about such a cipher, read the Sherlock Holmes story called The Adventure of the
Dancing Men.

Modern encryption is much more difficult than simple substitution ciphers (you need
computers for modern encryption), and is used for many reasons. It is still used by
spies and the military, but encryption is also used by ordinary people. It is used to
protect credit card numbers on the Internet, to protect cell phone calls, and to make
e-mail readable only by the person you sent it to.

Encryption protects your right to privacy. Encryption is like putting your message in an
envelope instead of on a postcard, or like whispering in somebody's ear so everyone
around you can't hear what you're saying.

So go ahead and experiment with sending secret messages to your friends using
substitution ciphers! For a real challenge, try to figure out how to decrypt Caesar
encryption when you don't know how many letters the alphabet was shifted by!

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