[Cryptography] What is the difference between a code and a cipher?

ianG iang at iang.org
Thu Sep 4 19:23:33 EDT 2014


On 4/09/2014 04:16 am, Peter Fairbrother wrote:
> Old chestnut - is it being intended to be hard to decrypt? Having a
> variable key? Something else?
> 
> I don't know whether there is a definitive answer, but opinions are sought.

Code -- think codebook -- is a translation of expected symbols:

Onion:   attack
Banana:  reinforcements
Aunt:    supreme leader

Whereas a cipher is something that takes any message, like a Caesar
cipher, which rotates every letter by 3 forward.



iang


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