> Obviously computer cryptography is more advanced
Wouldn't a single message from an unknown cipher be almost impossible to crack? You'd either need to know the algorithm or have multiple encoded messages along with the keys, right?
Not necessarily, because some ciphers retain statistical information about the plaintext . any prior knowledge about the shape of the plaintext can give you better than flat random chance of recognizing he decrypt.
Re:Can you crack a code?
by youngerdryas on Friday May 03, 2013 @09:31AM
(#5650005)
A one time pad cipher can be considered unbreakable.
You could read through a few ebooks available on cyptography freely on the internet, but you don't even need to do that in this case, I could just tell you.
The most common letter used in the english language is 'e'. Now identify the dot pattern that is the most common. Voila, you can translate a lot of the code. For the other letters, I would investigate some sort of chart that ranks the most common letters in the English alphabet. With a bit of playing you can do this with a pencil and paper.
Obviously computer cryptography is more advanced, but your question related to this code specifically.