Editing Atbash (section)

== Encryption ==
The Atbash cipher is a particular type of [[Substitution cipher|monoalphabetic cipher]] formed by taking the [[alphabet]] (or [[abjad]], [[syllabary]], etc.) and mapping it to its reverse, so that the first letter becomes the last letter, the second letter becomes the second to last letter, and so on. For example, the [[ISO basic Latin alphabet]] would work like this:
{{Aligned table|cols=27|class=wikitable|col1header=on
|  Plain|  A|B|C|D|E|F|G|H|I|J|K|L|M|N|O|P|Q|R|S|T|U|V|W|X|Y|Z
|  Cipher| Z|Y|X|W|V|U|T|S|R|Q|P|O|N|M|L|K|J|I|H|G|F|E|D|C|B|A
}}

Because there is only one way to perform this, the Atbash cipher provides no [[communications security]], as it lacks any sort of [[Key (cryptography)|key]]. If multiple [[collation|collating orders]] are available, which one was used in encryption can be used as a key, but this does not provide significantly more security, considering that only a few letters can give away which one was used.