Article: Codes and Ciphers

Codes and Ciphers

LARRY GILMAN

Codes and ciphers are forms of cryptography, a term from the Greek kryptos , hidden, and graphia , writing. Both transform legible messages into series of symbols that are intelligible only to specific recipients. Codes do so by substituting arbitrary symbols for meanings listed in a codebook; ciphers do so by performing rule-directed operations directly on original message text. Because codes can only communicate concepts that are listed in their codebooks, they have limited flexibility. Rather, modern cryptography relies almost entirely on ciphers implemented by digital computers, and is widely employed in industry, diplomacy, espionage, ...

Related newspaper, magazine, and journal articles:

 
 
Newsweek Harper's Magazine The Washington Post Chicago Tribune Crain's Chicago Business PRNewswire Pediatric News The Nation Advertising Age The Economist (US) A FREE trial gives you access to over 80 million articles! Access over 6,500 publications with a FREE trial!