The Playfair Cipher: The Playfair cipher was developed by Lyon Playfair and Sir Charles Wheatstone in 1854.

The Playfair cipher is advantageo s beca se it encodes digraphs !two letter pairs" rather than single letters# $a%ing it $ore diffic lt to crac%. &owever# the cipher re$ains easy to re$e$ber and se. 'irst# yo need a %ey word# s ch as( BARBARA CHASE. )e*t# re$ove all repeated letters and spaces# giving( BARCHSE. We se this code word to $a%e o r cipher grid# a 5 by 5 s+ are representing each letter# with I and J sharing a s+ are. The re$ainder of the grid is filled in alphabetically with the n sed letters(
B S I/J O V A E K P W R D L Q X C F M T Y H G N U Z

,n order to encode a $essage# yo first re$ove the spaces and brea% it into digraphs# or two letter parts. Consider the short $essage( GUMMY SHARK. This beco$es(
GU MM YS HA RK

We brea% p repeated digraphs !s ch as MM" with an X# as well as sing an X to t rn a final lone letter into a digraph !if necessary"(
GU MX MY SH AR KX

-ach digraph is then encoded as a new digraph sing the r les on the bac%side of this page.

. ,f the letters of the digraphs are in neither the sa$e row nor the sa$e col $n( To find the first letter of the encoded digraph# trace the row of the first letter of yo r original digraph to the col $n of the second. To find the second letter of the encoded digraph# trace the col $n of the first letter to the row of the second. 'or instance# sing the %ey word BARBARA CHASE# RI beco$es BL(
B S I/J O V A E K P W R D L Q X C F M T Y H G N U Z

.,f the letters share a row# the first letter of yo r encoded digraph is the letter to the right of the first letter of yo r original digraph. The second letter of yo r encoded digraph is the letter to the right of the second letter of yo r original digraph. Sho ld either letter be in the right$ost col $n# si$ply /wrap aro nd0 the left$ost letter in the sa$e row. 'or instance# EG beco$es DS. .,f the letters share a col $n# the first letter of yo r encoded digraph is the letter beneath the first letter of yo r original digraph. The second letter of yo r encoded digraph is the letter beneath the second letter of yo r original digraph. Sho ld either letter be in the botto$ row# si$ply /wrap aro nd0 the top$ost letter in the sa$e col $n. 'or instance# YC beco$es CF. 1sing this sche$e# o r original $essage GUMMY SHARK decodes to(
NZLYTCGBRCLW

2ecoding is 3 st the reverse4 See if yo can decode this cipher now to find yo r ne*t cl e(

Playfair Cipher Key Word( PAUL MURPHY Cipher( YNAIWKKZCDQEQCHPQZNMKEUWKFZFKEKZENVNZVKMKWEHNMUSHCDEVHAI