Question 1

What is cryptanalysis?

Accepted Answer

Cryptanalysis is the study of breaking cryptographic systems — finding weaknesses that allow encrypted messages to be read without the key. Techniques range from brute force (trying every possible key) to sophisticated mathematical attacks. Understanding cryptanalysis helps you appreciate why modern encryption algorithms are designed the way they are and why older ciphers like Caesar and substitution are trivially broken.

Question 2

Why are classical ciphers insecure?

Accepted Answer

Classical ciphers like Caesar, substitution, and Vigenere are insecure because they preserve statistical patterns from the plaintext. Frequency analysis — counting how often each letter appears — can break substitution ciphers since 'E' is the most common English letter. Modern ciphers like AES use complex transformations that make the ciphertext statistically indistinguishable from random data.

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