Statistical Cryptanalysis focuses on which of the following?

Statistical Cryptanalysis concentrates on identifying weaknesses in encryption methods by analyzing the statistical properties and patterns that may be present in the ciphertext. This form of cryptanalysis relies on exploiting the non-random characteristics of an encrypted message. By looking for statistical anomalies, it is possible to glean information about either the plaintext or the encryption key being used.

This approach is particularly effective against ciphers that do not produce uniformly random output, enabling attackers to use frequency analysis and other statistical tools to reveal vulnerabilities in the encryption process. Thus, if certain patterns or statistical frequencies can be identified, an attacker can potentially recover the original plaintext or even derive the key.

The focus is not on the computational strength of the algorithms in a theoretical sense, nor solely on differences in outputs for various plaintexts or pattern analysis in ciphertext. Rather, the essence of statistical cryptanalysis lies specifically in examining how the statistical attributes of encrypted data can reveal weaknesses or biases in the encryption mechanism itself.