Abstract

Cryptography is a science that applies mathematics to design strong methods of encryption of secret messages in a disguised form so that only those for whom it is intended can read and process the information. The need to securely store and transfer sensitive information has proved to be a critical factor in success, particularly during war and business, therefore giving more reasons for devising more secure ways of sending secret messages. In this study we present a provably secure method of encryption of secret messages which is very difficult to alter or break, either in motion or at rest. We use rhotrices to encode the messages and the inverses of the encoding rhotrices to decode the messages. The use of rhotrices in polygraphic cipher systems proved to be one of the most secured and constructive methods of analysing protocols, prevent public or third parties (called adversaries or eavesdropper) from reading or hearing the messages. Preliminary experimental results indicate that the method is efficient and secured.

Key words: Cryptography; Hill cipher; Coding; Decoding; Invertible rhotrix