How to Decipher a Secret Code

Did you come across a note in class that doesn't make any sense? It just might be a secret code! This article will teach you how to decipher secret codes which consists of sequences of numbers, letters or both combined.

Steps:

1. Determine what kind of code you have found. The type of code that can be deciphered with this method are simple replacements of a letter. For example: Every number 7 would be replaced with the letter B. If it doesn't look like a jumble of letters or a sequence of numbers, then you probably won't be able to crack it with this method.
   
   
2. Determine if the sequence of letters has been shuffled. If it hasn't been, then your job is immensely simplified. For letters, just shift every letter a space to the previous letter's spot. For example: The word "ABC," is decoded "Z.A.B." If this doesn't work, then shift the letters again and again, until you are back at the original message. If the message is a sequence of numbers, then start assigning numbers to letters, starting from "A: 1" all the way up to "Z: 26." Plug the letters in wherever their respective numbers are. If this doesn't work, then increase the numbers of all the letters by one (and making number 26 the new number 1). Plug in the letters again, and repeat the shifting until A is 1 again.
3. Look for anomalies in the message, such as single numbers or letters. These will most likely be the letters "A" or "I." The character repeated the most will often be "E." Watch for double letters, and take them into consideration.
4. Plug in as many letters this way as you can, then start filling in words, keeping track of which letters you are guessing at. Knowing what the note is about, or even the person who sent it, can be a great help.
5. Try to look for vowels. In most words, vowels and consonants come approximately alternate to each other. For example:

H__
H_W
_R_
Y__

• Most probably has a vowel between the consonants. So you can find that it's HEY HOW ARE YOU easily. Vowels appear the most in a code and especially the letter "E" needs to be checked first, as it helps reveal other parts of the code as well. For example, if you find that the letter "E" comes in a word "ARE", you will find that the same letter or number is substituted in other words such as "HE" and "BE" which helps break the code and get new substitutions.

1. Learn about different codes. The next step is code, which is much harder. Morse, Braille, and others are just ways (mainly cyphers) old soldiers could get a message. One way is connecting numbers to letters. For instance: “ 23 9 11 9 8 15 23” spells out “Wiki How”. This is an easy code. Another one commonly used in elementary school is pig Latin, which is where you take the first letter of each word and put it at the end and add ay. However, if the word starts with a vowel, just add ay at the end.
2. Learn other alphabets: Many languages don't write in the English alphabet neither in characters, but use lines and things like that. You will especially notice this if you read Arabic, Hindi, and other South-Asian languages.
   Source: www.wikihow.com