Editing Cryptonomicon (section)

===Cryptography===
====Pontifex Cipher====
In the book, a playing-card based cipher called Pontifex is used. At Stephenson's request, [[Bruce Schneier]] developed such a cipher, calling it [[Solitaire (cipher)|Solitaire]], and a precise description of Solitaire is included as an appendix. Solitaire was cryptanalyzed in 1999.<ref>{{Cite book |title=Encyclopedia of Cryptography and Security |date=2011 |publisher=Springer |isbn=978-1-4419-5906-5 |editor-last1=van Tilborg |editor-first1=Henk C. A. |editor-last2=Jajodia |editor-first2=Sushil |edition=2nd |series=Springer reference |location=New York }}</ref>

====One-time pad====
Several of the characters in the book communicate with each other through the use of [[one-time pad]]s. A one-time pad (OTP) is an encryption technique that requires a single-use pre-shared key of at least the same length as the encrypted message.

The story posits a variation of the OTP technique wherein there is no pre-shared key - the key is instead generated algorithmically.