From: ed.falk@Eng.Sun.COM (Ed Falk)
Date: Mon, 13 Jan 1997 12:25:06 -0800 (PST)
To: cypherpunks@toad.com
Subject: Re: encryption program
Message-ID: <199701132023.MAA22372@peregrine.eng.sun.com>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain


> what do you mean, polyalphabetic substitution?

Someone can correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe it refers to a cipher
where each character is encrypted individually, using a different
monoalphabetic cipher for each one.  The ciphers repeat after
a certain period, usually the key length.

Vigenere is the simplest polyalphabetic cipher of them all, with
the individual ciphers simply being ROT-n.