encryption programing?

[dragonstar57]

my hobby is cryptology and i would like to write a cipher and have a computer program encrypt and decrypt it.

i have asked things about it on yahoo answers but i'm invariably told that people would not do my home work for me,

let me be clear i'm not currently in a programing or cryptology class i am a hobbyist with an interest in the field

[insane_alien]

how much programming do you already know? and in what language?

[dragonstar57]

I know a medium amount about Qbasic (outdated i know) but but i'm supposed to take classes in hs this upcoming year for visual basic

[dragonstar57]

so will this be enough programing knowledge?

[vordhosbn]

Cryptographic algorithms can be implemented in any language. I have two questions for you:

1. Why do you want to write this "cipher" (assuming by this you mean a cryptographic algorithm)?

2. What type of data will you encrypt/decrypt?

3. Do you have any specific type of encryption in mind, or you just want to try out anything?

[dragonstar57]

Cryptographic algorithms can be implemented in any language. I have two questions for you:

1. Why do you want to write this "cipher" (assuming by this you mean a cryptographic algorithm)?

2. What type of data will you encrypt/decrypt?

3. Do you have any specific type of encryption in mind, or you just want to try out anything?

 

 

1 I think the field in interesting, i have been using very basic polyalphabetic ciphers and don't know where to go from there

2 at this point text documents but maybe later images and audio recordings

3 something with a reasonable security level. something that will be more secure than a polyalphabetic

but a government/corporate/industrial level cipher would be overkill

[vordhosbn]

Well, most of the polyalphabetic ciphers are very easy to break with modern computing power, especially if the type of the encrypted data is known (for example in most languages vowels are repeated very often and form distinctive patterns).

 

To work with modern cryptographic algorithms, you need some understanding of mathematics, but since this is interesting for you, you can learn "on the go".

 

A quick google search yields very interesting tutorials and guides to cryptography.

 

I recommend using C/C++.

For development environment - Micro$oft VS Express (which is free for non-commercial use).

Or even better - pirate the full version and use Visual Assist.

 

Good luck!

Edited September 1, 2010 by vordhosbn