Genetic Algorithms, TABU Search and Simulated Annealing: A Comparison Between Three Approaches for the Cryptanalysis of Transposition Cipher

Due to increasing incidents of cyber attacks, the demand for effective internet security is increasing. Cryptology is the science and study of systems for secret communication. It consists of two complementary fields of study: cryptography and cryptanalysis. In this paper, the authors propose a cryptanalysis method based on genetic algorithm, tabu search & simulated annealing to break a transposition cipher. They will also compare and analyze the performance of these algorithms in automated attacks on a transposition cipher. A generalized version of these algorithms can be used for attacking other cipher as well.