Whether your child is a spy-in-training -- trying to keep his or her journal from falling into the wrong hands, or wanting to keep a surprise a surprise -- cryptography is a useful skill to have. Cryptography is the name for encoding and decoding information – that is, changing it somehow, to prevent others from reading it, and figuring out how to change it back into a message you can understand. Show
"Ciphers" are ways of encoding and decoding information that use a series of very precise instructions. Encourage your child to become a cipher with these steps and materials. When your child is gathering his tools and materials, ask him to think about how secretive he wants his message to be. For example, writing with a big black marker is not as secretive as invisible ink. Will he write his message on normal paper or across pieces of a puzzle? Is his message going to be put in a normal envelope and mailed or does it need to fit inside a tiny secret compartment? Tools: Materials: Encoding With the Caesar Cipher Step 1. Write out the entire alphabet in a line. Step 2. Choose a number to be your "rotation" amount. In this example, it is 7. Count this many letters into the alphabet. Step 3. Under your first line, starting at the letter you "rotated" to, rewrite the alphabet. When you get to "Z," go to the beginning of the alphabet line above this one and continue filling in letters until you've rewritten the entire alphabet. Hint: Drawing vertical lines between each letter pair can help you see which letters are paired together. Using different colors for the regular and "rotated" alphabet can help you remember which is which. Step 4. Decide what your message is going to say and write it on a piece of paper. Now you're ready to encode it! Look at the first letter in your message, and find it in the top row of your code sheet. Then look for the letter on the line in the bottom row of your code and write it on a new piece of paper. In this example the first letter is "I," and the one below it is "B." Continue encoding the rest of the letters in the message. Step 5. To decode a message, you do the process in reverse. Look at the first letter in the coded message. Find it in the bottom row of your code sheet, then find the letter it corresponds to in the top row of your code sheet and write it above the encoded letter. This can be confusing at first! It takes practice to be a fast decoder. Taking It Further: Jigsaw Puzzle Pieces Hint: Assembling a puzzle picture-side up is much easier than assembling it message-side up. But it then has to be flipped over to see, and solve, the encrypted message. To flip it over without losing pieces, assemble the puzzle on top of something flat and easy to move, like a piece of cardboard. When you're finished, cover the whole thing with another flat piece. Flip the entire cardboard-and-puzzle sandwich over to reveal the message on the back! Taking It Further: Spacing Encoding With the Rail Fence Cipher Step 1. The rails of a split-rail fence are the long pieces that run parallel to the ground and the posts run straight up and down. Draw a fence form with rails and posts. To encrypt your message, write it one letter at a time down the posts of the fence, moving up to the top of the next post when you reach the bottom.
To decode the message, have your child separate it into as many sections (in this example, three), each encrypted word across a fence rail, and read down the fence "posts," left to right. Don't forget to tell the person decoding the message how many rails are in the "fence" that your child used! Hint: If you combine the techniques of the Caesar Cipher, the Rail Fencer Cipher, changing the space, and using a jigsaw puzzle in different ways, your child's encoded message will be much safer from prying eyes. And fun to solve! What type of file often sent with an email message can contain malicious code?Executable Files:
One of the most dangerous types of files that hackers attach to emails is an executable file. If you open this type of file on your computer, it will almost certainly contain malicious software (also known as malware).
What type of file often sent with an e mail message can contain malicious code that can be downloaded and executed on a client's computer?Ransomware is often spread through phishing emails that contain malicious attachments or through drive-by downloading.
What are the most popular encryption systems used over the Web?Here are five of the more common ones.. AES. The Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) is the trusted standard algorithm used by the United States government, as well as other organizations. ... . Triple DES. ... . RSA. ... . Blowfish. ... . Twofish. ... . Rivest-Shamir-Adleman (RSA).. Which encryption method is most widely used and why?Most of the data tools available on the market today use AES encryption. Even those that allow you to use other methods with their programs recommend the AES standard. It works in so many applications, and it's still the most widely-accepted and secure encryption method for the price.
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