An Overview of Columnar Transposition Cipher: Features, Encryption, and Decryption
Understanding the Applications and Key Features of Columnar Transposition Cipher | Karthikeyan Nagaraj
3 min readApr 6, 2023
Introduction:
- In cryptography, transposition ciphers are a type of encryption method that involves rearranging the order of characters in the plaintext to produce the ciphertext.
- Columnar transposition cipher is one such method that involves transposing the plaintext by columns before encrypting it.
- This article aims to provide a comprehensive guide to columnar transposition cipher, including its key features, encryption process, decryption process, and use cases.
Key Features of Columnar Transposition Cipher:
- Columnar transposition cipher is a type of transposition cipher that involves rearranging the plaintext by columns before encrypting it.
- It is a symmetric-key cipher, meaning the same key is used for both encryption and decryption.
- The key size of columnar transposition cipher can vary, and the key itself is a permutation of the numbers 1 through N, where N is the length of the plaintext.