Transposition ciphers rearrange the letters of the plaintext message in a predefined manner agreed upon by the sender and receiver. Simple transposition ciphers include rail fence ciphers, which write the message across multiple rows and read alternately down each row, and columnar transpositions, which write the message across columns. Keyword columnar transpositions use the letters of a keyword to determine the order of columns. Cryptanalysis techniques for breaking simple transposition ciphers include trying different numbers of columns and looking for pieces of known plaintext.
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