USING MATRICES IN CRYPTOGRAPHY op, ox 20, Cryptography is the study of encoding and decoding messages. Cryp- EK m= 2 tography was first developed to send secret messages in written form. % & However, today it is used to maintain privacy when information is being aN J transmitted via public communication services (by line or by satellite). Messages are sent in code or cipher form. The method of converting text to ciphertext is called enciphering and the reverse process is called deciphering. The operations of matrix addition and multiplication can be used to create codes and the coded messages are transmitted. Decoding using additive or multiplicative inverses is re- quired by the receiver in order to read the message. The letters of the alphabet are first | A | B | C | D F/G/H]I]J]/K]L[M assigned integer | 1 | 2|3]|4/5|6|7 |8| 9 | 10] 11 | 12/13 values. Nlo/P/Q/rR|s|[tlulv|[w[x]/y|z Notice that Zis | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25] 0 assigned 0. The coded form of the word SEND is therefore 19 5 144 which we could put in 2 x 2 19 5 niticten [1 5]. (An encoding matrix of your choice could be added to thismatix. Suppose itis [ i | : 44 13 5 27 9 21 12 1 9 The matrix to be transmitted is then [ noe }+[ ah | = [ pe | 21 12 27 °«9 adjusted to be in it by adding or subtracting multiples of 26. Now [ | becomes [ l as any number not in the range 0 to 25 is So, [ vs » ] is sentas 211219. The message SEND MONEY PLEASE could be broken into groups of four letters and each group is encoded. SEND|MONE|YPLE|ASEE +— repeat the last letter to make group of 4. This is a dummy letter. . 7 13° (15 27 15 22]. 15 22 reworttensinonicis [8 ¥]s[2 7]=[% Blie.[8 2]For YPLE the matrix required is [ ; 16 + 27 «23), 1 23 5 13 5 2 10)" [25 10 1 5 2 1 19 3 26 300 For ASEE the matrix required is [ 5 etl "fa ral eal al 9 So the whole message is 21 12 1 15 22 1 10 1 23 25 10 3 0 18 10 The decoder requires the additive inverse matrix [ a ] to decode the message. What to do: 1 Use the decoder matrix to check that the original message is obtained. 2 Use the code given to decode the message: ee ee O22 25 10 12 0 20 23 1 21 20 8 1 21 10 15 2 5 23 3 6 12 4 3 Create your own matrix addition code. Encode a short message. Supply the decoding matrix to a friend so that he/she can decode it. 4 Breaking codes where matrix multiplication is used is much more difficult. choventencoderimatcixtelrequired | Suppose litlig [ ae | . The word SEND is encoded as | nO | [ a | = [ oes ] . 1 1 which is converted to [ he | a What is the coded form of SEND MONEY PLEASE? & What decoder matrix needs to be supplied to the receiver so that the message can be read? ¢ Check by decoding the message. d Create your own code using matrix multiplication using a matrix [ i a | where ad—bc—1. Why? @ What are the problems in using a 2 x 2 matrix when ad —be 4 1? How can these problems be overcome? 5 Research Hill ciphers and explain how they differ from the methods given previously.