scytale
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- Encrypting
- Decrypting
- History
- Message authentication hypothesis
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thumb|right|A scytale with a leather strip
In cryptography, a scytale (; ; also transliterated skytale, skutálē "baton, cylinder", also skútalon) is a tool used to perform a transposition cipher, consisting of a cylinder with a strip of parchment wound around it on which a message is written. The ancient Greeks, and the Spartans in particular, are said to have used this cipher to communicate during military campaigns.
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “scytale” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.