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The first step was usually very simple: count the letters in the cryptogram. In English, the most frequently used letter is E, the most frequent two-letter group is TH, and the most fre-quent three-letter group is THE. So if you count the letters in the ciphertext and the most common letter is B, it might stand for E, and if the most common three-letter group is NXB, it might stand for THE.
You can count other things in a cryptogram, like the total number of vowels and consonants, and how often
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― The Woman Who Smashed Codes: A True Story of Love, Spies, and the Unlikely Heroine who Outwitted America's Enemies
― The Woman Who Smashed Codes: A True Story of Love, Spies, and the Unlikely Heroine who Outwitted America's Enemies
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The strength of a cryptographic system usually has less to do with its design than with the way people tend to use it. Humans are the weak link. Instead of changing keys or passwords at regular intervals, we use the same ones over and over, for weeks or months or years. We repeat the same words (such as "secret") at the start of multiple messages, or repeat entire messages multiple times, giving codebreakers a foothold. We choose key phrases that are easy to guess: words related to where we live
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”
― The Woman Who Smashed Codes: A True Story of Love, Spies, and the Unlikely Heroine who Outwitted America's Enemies
― The Woman Who Smashed Codes: A True Story of Love, Spies, and the Unlikely Heroine who Outwitted America's Enemies
