Cipher machines are used widely today to protect communication against unauthorized reading. This is true not only of military and diplomatic messages but also of correspondence by governments, corporate organization and individuals. Cryptographers, who study the adequacy of the protection afforded by cipher machines, make use of mathematical description of their operation. Examples of several cipher machines are given and it is demonstrated that the encipherment produced by a machine can be summarized by a small number of equations. A brief introduction to cryptographic concepts is provided.
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