Preliminary Activity: Requires at least two people. 1. Have each person develop and write out an alphanumeric code for the purpose of sending secret messages. The code does not need to be fancy or complex. 2. Once all people involved have created a code, have each write a message using that code. After the messages are written, trade messages with another person. 3. When each person has a coded message, they must attempt to break the code and figure out what the coded message says.      Consider the following situation. A person Alice wants to send another person Bob a message. The only problem is that Alice and Bob do not want anyone else to be able to read the message, and they know that a third person Cindy is viewing all of their correspondence. The only choice that Alice and Bob have, so that Cindy cannot read all of their messages, is to develop a code that Cindy cannot understand and then to send messages using that code.       The development of this code brings a host of new problems. First, Alice and Bob need to decide on a message coding system. Secondly, this coding system needs to be difficult to crack so that Cindy does not break the code and read all of the messages. And finally, Alice and Bob need to exchange the keys or the methods for creating and reading the coded messages. This exchange must be done in secret or without Cindy's knowledge. Since Cindy is listening in on all of Alice and Bob's communications, they cannot send the coding method to each other. The safest method would then be for Alice and Bob to meet. However, this exchange could be a problem as Alice and Bob may be hundreds of miles or even continents apart.

Paper Assignment: The goal of this assignment is for you to develop your own cipher which internet users can employ to send secure or coded messages to one another through email. The focus of this assignment is on describing a process in logical order (i.e., serializing). First establish the cipher to be used and then present the steps that must be followed to encode, send, and decipher messages.     Explain how the sender and receiver will establish, agree on, and exchange all necessary information on the cipher. Caution: If they do this through the internet, someone else may intercept their messages. In addition, if the sender lives in New York and the receiver in Kuala Lumpur, it will be hard for them to meet face-to-face. Your paper should have the following parts: a) Explain clearly, with a few examples, how to encode a simple message. Provide the reader with the illustrations (e.g., charts, tables) necessary to follow the encoding process. b) Indicate how messages will be sent over the internet. For example, will the sender send a huge number, or a sequence of smaller numbers, a sequence of letters? c) Explain clearly, by continuing on with the examples used in (a), how to decipher a simple message. Again, provide the reader with the illustrations necessary to follow the deciphering process.