Week 11 Reflection: Why Does a Cipher Fail?

Use your cryptanalysis ledger and failure report.

Write 150 to 250 words, or record an equivalent explanation, responding to this prompt:

A ciphertext looks completely unreadable. Why is that not enough evidence that the encryption is strong?

Include:

• one classical cipher
• its key or transformation rule
• one structural weakness
• one pattern that survives encryption
• one reason Base64 is different from encryption
• one requirement a stronger cryptographic system should satisfy

Finish with:

I would trust a cryptographic design only after ________, not because ________.