A Cryptanalysis lesson learnt from Enc2

The reason for it coming out in off topic is because I thought it is a topic that everyone has a different idea about.

Ok, I started wondering about how people would crack a code when given incomplete data. I was doing enc2 and after finally finishing the substitution I glanced at the sentence and there was something missing in there. The question now became, "Should I fill in what is supposed to go in there or not?" I thought about it for a while and submitted one without filling in the data I thought was missing in there and one after filling in the sentence to make it gramatically correct. Now, this is just a challenge and most people would assume that the challenge has to be in such a way that the problem should match the solution. I would say no!

I would say there is a lesson to be learnt: "When you are trying to break a code block, let's say an encrypted message. It might be the case that you do not have the complete message or parts of the message are missing. What would you do? You try and fill in the gaps with data you gathered about the people in question and the subject of their conversation. Since you, do not have th e whole conversation you might end up with more than one possible solution. You act based on {your background information on the person + the best choice for an answer}. What if you are working on a message and have no idea about the person who wrote the message? Then, you will have to fill in the gaps with ur knowledge about the subject of the conversation. When you have no background information on the persons in question, I would say it would be best not to be judgemental or you will end up wasting a lot of time."

Well enuf rambling from my part, all though it was an unintentional lesson learnt..I thought I would share it :happy: Kindly do share your thoughts.

REgards,