Part 1 – Have You Used Encryption Before?

Step 1: Explain that this is an introductory session for encryption as a concept, so you will not yet be going into great depth on any of the encryption tools that participants have likely heard about before (GPG/PGP in particular).

Step 2: Split participants up into pairs, and then start the session by demonstrating a few examples of encryption techniques. Here are a few examples that you can prepare ahead of time to share with the group:

The BLUEPRINTS Code
Each of the letters in the word “Blueprints” is assigned a number:
B L U E P R I N T S
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
This is a specific example using a specific word, but can be broadly applied to any number and letter sequence – for instance, if you use the same system as above, the sequence of numbers 8 2 5 7 9 would spell T U R N S when “decrypted”. You could also switch the order of the numbers, so that instead of the above sequence, it now goes:
B L U E P R I N T S
9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 0
In this instance, the sequence of numbers 8 2 5 7 9 would now spell L N P U B (which isn’t a word) when “decrypted”; however, you could now “decrypt” the sequence 4 3 2 0 6 as R I N S E.

Old-Fashioned Text Messaging
Use an image of an older-style phone keypad (see below) to demonstrate another kind of “encryption” that participants may be familiar with: