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Tech Apps and Coding

Lesson 5.4 Basic Crypto Systems: Cracking Caesar

Description

In this lesson, students will practice using brute force and letter frequency to crack the Caesar Cipher. The Caesar Cipher is an encryption method in which each letter of the message is shifted by a certain amount, called the key. Cracking the Caesar Cipher with brute force (trying every combination) is a trivial matter for modern computers.


Objective

Students will be able to:

  • Explain why the Caesar Cipher is so easy for a computer to crack
  • Use basic letter distribution analysis to decrypt a simple message