`AN: 1475 ; Newton, David E..; Encyclopedia of Cryptology
`Account: s5138672
`
`Copyright © 1997. ABC-CLIO. All rights reserved. May not be reproduced in any form without permission from the publisher, except fair uses permitted under U.S. or applicable copyright law.
`
`Venice, Naples, Mantua, Florence, and other citystates, along with the political intrigue and plotting that developed as a consequence of this economic interchange.
`David Kahn reports that, by the end of the sixteenth century, cryptology had become important enough for most Italian city states to employ fulltime cipher
`secretaries. These officials were responsible for developing new nomenclators, enciphering plaintexts, deciphering incoming messages, and breaking captured
`cryptograms.
`
`A nomenclator is actually a hybrid of code and cipher systems. In its earliest form, it consisted of a relatively short list of names alluded to in secret documents, along
`with codewords representing the names. In one nomenclator, for example, "Naples" was represented by the word nobile (noble), while "Florence" was represented
`by the word terra (land).
`
`Before long, a simple monosubstitution cipher alphabet was added to the list of names. The nomenclator mentioned above, for example, used the symbol g for the
`letter C and the symbol T for the letter O. Over time, both the codenames and cipher alphabets used in nomenclators became more extensive and complex. Rather
`than a few dozen codewords, they often contained a few thousand. In place of a monosubstitution alphabet, these nomenclators employed multiple substitutes, or
`homophones. Nomenclators also commonly included symbols for nulls, or nihil importantes (nothing important), to confuse prospective cryptanalysts.
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`Page 197
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`An example of a message encrypted by means of a nomenclator (using modern symbols and language) might look like the following:
`PLAINTEXT:
`M O
`N
`E
`Y
`T
`O
`S
`M
`I
`T
`H
`S E N D
`
`
`x t v i k j c
`b
`
`
`nomenclator:
`
`v
`
`e
`
`a
`
`p
`
`c
`
`t
`
`u
`
`l
`
`i
`
`p
`
`See also: cipher; code; homophones; monoalphabetic substitution; null.
`
`For further reading: David Kahn, The Codebreakers: The Story of Secret Writing, New York: Macmillan, 1967, ch. 3.
`
`Nonce
`
`A number used in a cryptographic protocol to indicate the unique character of a message. Nonces are essential when the same protocol is used many times with the
`same set of participants. Theoretically, it would be simple for a third party to alter any particular transmission using the protocol if no change were made in its use each
`time. A number of different devices can be used as nonces, including large random numbers and timestamps.
`
`See also: random number; timestamp.
`
`For further reading: Charlie Kaufman, Radia Perlman, and Mike Speciner, Network Security: Private Communication in a Public World, Englewood Cliffs, NJ: PrenticeHall,
`1995, pp. 244, 254256.
`
`Nonrepudiation
`
`Proof that a particular person or organization has made some type of agreement with one or more other people or organizations. Nonrepudiation means that a person
`or organization cannot say at some time in the future that he, she, or it never really agreed to some arrangement with another party.
`
`Nonrepudiation is a normal and common feature of agreements in everyday life. For example, when someone wants to borrow money from a bank, he or she signs an
`agreement indicating that the money really was borrowed and that it will be paid back. The person cannot later say that the money was never really obtained and/or
`that there was never any intent to pay the money back.
`
`Nonrepudiation is normal in business transactions also. Alice may sign an agreement with Bob to buy 10,000 shares of stock in the ABC Company for $1 million. Her
`signature on the agreement is accepted as proof that she made the agreement in the first place.
`
`For many everyday transactions, a personal signature is sufficient evidence for later nonrepudiation of an agreement. In many cases, the signature may need to be
`witnessed by a trusted third party,
`
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