Cipher
Cypher, or cipher, is a word derived from the medieval latin word cifre which meant zero. As time progressed it came to mean a number with decimals or even any number. There are many theories as how it came to be used in encryption:
Encryption used numbers in random orders to replace words or letters
The English used "zero" for "0", and "cipher" from the word "ciphering" as a means of computing.
The Roman system was very cumbersome because there was no concept of zero or (empty space). The concept of zero (which was also called "cipher"), which we all now think of as natural, was very alien in medieval Europe, so confusing and ambiguous to common Europeans that in arguments people would say "talk clearly and not so far fetched as a cipher". Cipher came to mean concealment of clear messages or encryption.
Ciphers are currently that which is used to encrypt a document, in non-technical usage, a "secret code." Cyphers are the keys to encryption containing instructions on how to code and/or decrypt something.
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Key size
Key size is what determines how safe a key is, the bigger the key the better. Bigger keys require more time to code but they also become harder to crack, this can be essential with new programs on computers being used to break encryptions. The key size of any encryption is one of the base components of its safety.
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Polyalphabetic Substitution
Polyalphabetic Substitution is a form of cipher where a letter is replaced by a letter or number from different alphabets usually set up by the creator of the cipher. In some forms of this substitution many letters can mean the same letter and can become exponentially harder to decrypt for someone with out the key. Polyalphabetic Substitution is a very popular means of coding because the key can become very immense and exponentially harder to code.
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More Information on Encryption
More Ciphers
