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Cryptography is as explain in the dictionary as an art/system of writing messages in secret codes and decoding it. The person who decodes the secret writings or cryptogram (things written in cipher) is called a cryptographer; and cryptanalysis is the breaking of the codes. Usually cryptography is mostly used in the olden days like the days of the WORLD WAR. Spies used this system to send messages to their allies so that the oppositions do not know what they are thinking. Basically they used Morse codes (system of code in which letters are represented by combinations of long and short signals). But in ancient times and even today, people use diagrams, numbers or even letters of the alphabets to substitute/represent the words in messages.
A Morse-code sounder
The simplest cryptograms are those in which one letter of the alphabets (i.e. from A to Z) represents the other letter of the alphabets. For example ’ G ‘ can represent ‘ A ’ of the coded message, and continues on with ‘ H ’ representing ‘ B’. Below shows how it looks like:
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 G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z A B C D E F
An example of a coded message: I U S V A Z K X
Which encoded is:
Other cryptograms may use numbers to represent them, e.g. C - 3 , D – 4, etc. Some even use bigger numbers to represent them. These alternative numbers are called homophones. Messages without these keys will be impossible to decode unless by intelligence department with special equipment.
Some use diagrams to represent works like the examples below:
computer
which reads: COMPUTER
as’ ’ represents ’C’, ’ ’ represents ‘ O’ and so on.
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