# Hands-on cryptography

## Aim

The aim of this workshop is to teach basic working knowledge of cryptographic and cryptanalytic concepts, such as basic encoding techniques and basic techniques to crack encoded messages.

## How it works

This workshop was designed to have people experiment with the concepts they learn:

1. first they are taught an encryption method and are asked to encrypt small words with it;
2. then they are taught two techniques to crack messages and are then asked to decode some prepared sentences;
3. a more advanced method is then taught and explained with as much maths as the audience allows (there is not much maths to it, trust me!);
4. the audience is then taught a more advanced technique to decypher messages and then applies it to a bigger text message, usually working together.

I have given this workshop many times and the contents can easily be adapted to the age of the audience/their prior knowledge. With younger kids I usually stick to pen and paper and that was how this workshop originally started; with older kids we can use some programming to automate things.

More basic versions of this workshop are suitable for kids as young as $$12$$ but kids with $$14$$ years or more will appreciate the workshop more. I have also made this advanced enough for college-level students.

This workshop ends up being fun because of the engagement one builds with the audience while cracking the messages.