Re: manual cryptography

"Cyber Vagrant" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote in message
news:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> One can create quick pencil and paper cipher in a wide varity of ways,
> for example using a key word say cypto you can form a sustitution
> alphabet by laying it out in rows as follows:
>
>
>        c r y p t o a b d e f g
>
>        h i j k l m n p q s u v
>
>        w x z
>
> Just drop out the letters of the keyword from the regular sequence.
> Then, take it up by columns to form the substitutions.
>
>       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
>       c h w r i x y j z p k t l o m a n b d q e s f u g v
>
> Voila, your cipher!

Not good at all!  Look up monoalphabetic substitution cipher.  Napoleon
thought these were pretty near unbreakable too.  It didn't take more than a
few 10's of thousands of casualties before he decided that they might not be
at the pinnacle of security.