1. (Reading Assignment) Read Chapter 1 of Simon Singh's The Code Book. (We have covered about half the material during week 1, and will cover the rest next week).

2. (Skytale) The following text has been encrypted using a skytale
(and removing resulting spaces). Recover the plaintext, and include
a description of how you found the plaintext (including failed
attempts).

"IKNOOSNTMUTOHABHWENTELWCREOOEDRUAGLLNEDDYIND"

3. (Caesar Cipher) The following ciphertext results from a Caesar cipher:

"jura v unq orra qrnq nobhg guvegl lrnef v ortha gb trg n yvggyr nakvbhf"

Determine the shift, and recover the plaintext (briefly describe how you did it).

4. (Transposition or Substitution) You intercepted the four ciphertexts a) through d) below; you know that the original plaintexts are in English and that either a substitution cipher (such as the shift cipher, or the monoalphabetic substitution cipher) or a transposition cipher (such as the rail-fence cipher or the skytale) was used. For each ciphertext, determine whether it is the result of a substitution cipher or a transposition cipher and explain how you reached your decision. You  do not have to find out which particular cryptosystem was used in each case (we haven't seen any of the four systems yet); in particular, you do not have to break the ciphers.

a) "po df cl qe tw az cp ho im iq kc ab qm xt az cp yo cu hn tg tu ho cp fo xc tn mx cq th mh ho hk lh eq tu dq si ab db ea ow li pr th dh sc pc xz mt hz"

b) "whdakucane cwarhtfbrj uanhnoehto xtupreecer clehohsedp dehxasodna exobetitne nrnoachngt nlettobude ge"

c) "O A R E G H R E T C S E S W I N F T H A Y U I W K N J N A Y
V N N O T E A L S V N I S H I T N N L S N A S N I G N A S A
T E C D M O M S C N E Y R A U E I F E Y E E R I I O S G I U
T A E F I N O"

d) "VLBAIFBYSP MNLLJEOGMR IVMSYJZJMN LLUZMKJFSZ ALPLFEQDZQ PEESZQJEOA UEJENSBQURB LOCBTIVLKZ FNEBQJTQFU CXPWJR"

Hint: the Caesar cipher spreadsheet will come in handy.