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Number Theory and Cryptography


Cryptology is the study of secret writing. You can try your hand at cracking a broad range of ciphers. Breaking these will require ingenuity, creativity and, of course, a little math. However, the focus won't be just on breaking ciphers (a skill called cryptanalysis); we will try to develop new ones (called cryptography), test ones we have made and talk about how easy (or difficult) some old codes are to use.




Decode these Substitution Ciphers!


What does this say? Learn about the Vigenere Cipher!


WCERGIA EOSITTC LMPNOHA

welcome spring to ithaca!

Can you see how this message was encoded? All about transposition ciphers!


What do prime numbers have to do with cryptography?


Learn about current unbreakable encryption schemes (RSA)!