The Rise of Cryptanalysis – How Ciphers Were Broken

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 As encryption techniques became more advanced, so did the methods used to break them. The science of breaking codes, known as cryptanalysis, played a crucial role in history.

Frequency Analysis 

    Early ciphers like the Caesar and Vigenère ciphers were vulnerable to frequency analysis, a technique that studies the frequency of letters in a language to crack the code. For example, in English, ‘E’ is the most commonly used letter. If an encrypted message contained an unusually high number of a certain letter, cryptanalysts could identify which letter had been substituted.

Brute Force Attacks 
    
    Some ciphers could be broken simply by trying every possible key until the correct one was found. This was possible for simple encryption methods like the Caesar cipher but became much harder as ciphers became more complex.

AI-Based Cryptanalysis
    
    In modern times, artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning have revolutionized cryptanalysis. AI can analyze encrypted texts and find patterns that humans might miss, making it a powerful tool for both breaking weak encryption and strengthening cybersecurity defenses.


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