Encode the following plaintext, using the Caesar cipher:
LORD OF THE RINGS
b) The following ciphertext
jw njbh lxmn cx kanjt
has been encoded using a generalised Caesar cipher where the following rule computes a character ci in the cipher text from a character pi in the plain text:
ci = E(pi) = pi + d
where d is a positive integer.
Find the number d and the plain text. Hint: use a table of English letter frequencies. This information can be found on the Internet.
c) Now consider the following cipher text:
homlox prv hetorx orxolxpersorx
A more general substitution cipher has been used. Recall that this means that every letter of the alphabet appearing in the plain text is replaced with another unique letter of the alphabet. For example, the letter 'a' could be mapped into 'h', the letter 'b' into 'x' etc. The ciphertext then simply consists of these mapped letters.
Work out the original plain text message, using the following approach:
(i) Write a line of dashes ("_") as placeholders for the plaintext characters corresponding to each letter in the above cipher text. Make sure you also mark the spaces between the different words as they will give you clues as soon as you know some of the letters.
(ii) Using the English letter frequency table, find the letter which the letter "e" is most likely to be replaced with. Use this to replace some of the "_" by the letter "e" (simply copy the last line you wrote and then replace).