What is a transposition cipher?

A transposition cipher is a type of encryption method that rearranges the order of the characters in a plaintext message to produce the ciphertext. The goal of a transposition cipher is to confuse an attacker by making it difficult to determine the original message from the encrypted version.

Unlike substitution ciphers, which replace each character with a different character or symbol, transposition ciphers only rearrange the order of the characters in plaintext.

There are several different types of transposition ciphers, including simple columnar transposition, double transposition, and rail fence ciphers.

Simple Columnar Transposition: The plaintext is written in columns and the columns are then rearranged to create the ciphertext.

Double Transposition: The plaintext is encrypted using two separate transposition steps to create the ciphertext.

Rail Fence Cipher: The plaintext is written in a zigzag pattern and then read from left to right to create the ciphertext.

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