Any Cryptanalysts on Avalon? Hobbyist Group Sound Interesting? Visual Language Project!

[Tesla_WTC_Solution]

Hello guys and girls of Avalon!
I apologize for making so many posts today!
Needless to say, some of us caught some of that incoming solar flare energy!!
This is a complete noob's attempt to get some smart people on-board;
Help me by contributing to this special Avalon-only project:
In the following posts, if they arrive on schedule, there should be a lot to learn.
No one should feel left out, not even speakers of other languages than English;
There is plenty of time for all to participate and enjoy the subtle art of coding.

This thread has been cooking for a long time... don't let its plain appearance and present shortness discourage you from helping make it into something great!

Kudos to the person who can find our very first, very simple coded message in the text above -- and extra points to the person who can tell me how this very rudimentary coding style was recently used jokingly by one government agency to communicate a message via the public press to another government agency -- a practice perhaps more common than we might think!

_______________________________________________________

Disclosure:

Q.) Why am I (the OP) interested in cryptanalysis and speaking to amateur and professional cryptographers and cryptanalysts here on Avalon?

A.) It's been a back-burner (almost non-existent) interest of mine since taking the full-version of the ASVAB in 2003. I did great until the coding section, which was the last part of the test and also the most difficult for many people who take it. In fact, when I looked at the wall of text in front of my eyes, I was overcome by stress and panic, to the point of not even wanting to try to work out the code. I simply selected what I thought to be the most likely answer, choosing many answers completely at random. For some reason, the military didn't disclose the results of the cryptanalysis test. This might be fairly standard, for obvious reasons.

I've read some books over the years that mentioned code, but never in a very interesting or approachable format. It wasn't really until I heard about Dan Brown (Da Vinci Code guy) and people like the infamous (and likely deceased?) "Zodiac Killer" that I acquired an interest in codebreaking (and code-making!). Not to mention, the recently declassified British news releases regarding code-breaking women of WW2.

I am hoping that by learning about code, I can exercise my mind in a positive and constructive manner, while still receiving the benefit of having deconstructed something (if only on paper or in my mind!). Code-breaking is a very stimulating, educated, and non-violent sport/hobby/pastime and should not be regarded as taboo, strange, terroristic, or boring (because it's really quite fascinating!).

Not to mention, it would be really cool if someone was able to decipher the last panel of Kryptos!

Q.) What will you (the OP) be doing with this information (if any is posted), and what is the point of this thread, ultimately?

A.) I am interested in how much information on this subject we users can successfully impart to one another. I have no intention of using the information to be posted in this thread for any purpose other than my own education, along with other users. Whether the thread remains public or private is open to member vote. Again, the point of this thread is introducing cryptanalysis as a hobby and sport for the sake of social opportunity and education.

Q.) Do you (OP) have any goals in regard to what may be produced in this thread?

A.) Well, I am not the brightest bulb on the Christmas tree, but it would be interesting if humans could produce a code that is breakable by humans but not by computer -- by virtue of its subtleties.

Also, it would be interesting to start developing a visual language in order to help people and animals with sensory issues (such as autism) to communicate freely with other human beings at will, with or without the help of technology. A good working knowledge of code, symbology, etc. would be of extreme helpfulness in developing such a language.

___________________________________________


I will be coming back to check on this one soon!
I will try to get some links and book references together as well, and maybe some practice stuff.

p.s.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cryptan..._cryptanalysts

Historic cryptanalysts

Conel Hugh O'Donel Alexander
Charles Babbage
Lambros D. Callimahos
Alastair Denniston
Agnes Meyer Driscoll
Elizebeth Friedman
William F. Friedman, the father of modern cryptology
Meredith Gardner
Friedrich Kasiski
Al-Kindi
Dilly Knox
Solomon Kullback
Marian Rejewski
Joseph Rochefort, whose contributions affected the outcome of the Battle of Midway
Frank Rowlett
Abraham Sinkov
Giovanni Soro, the Renaissance's first outstanding cryptanalyst
John Tiltman
Alan Turing
William T. Tutte
John Wallis - 17th-century English mathematician
Herbert Yardley

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cryptography

Cryptography (or cryptology; from Greek κρυπτός, "hidden, secret"; and γράφειν, graphein, "writing", or -λογία, -logia, "study", respectively)[1] is the practice and study of techniques for secure communication in the presence of third parties (called adversaries).[2] More generally, it is about constructing and analyzing protocols that overcome the influence of adversaries[3] and which are related to various aspects in information security such as data confidentiality, data integrity, authentication, and non-repudiation.[4] Modern cryptography intersects the disciplines of mathematics, computer science, and electrical engineering. Applications of cryptography include ATM cards, computer passwords, and electronic commerce.

Cryptography prior to the modern age was effectively synonymous with encryption, the conversion of information from a readable state to apparent nonsense. The originator of an encrypted message shared the decoding technique needed to recover the original information only with intended recipients, thereby precluding unwanted persons to do the same. Since World War I and the advent of the computer, the methods used to carry out cryptology have become increasingly complex and its application more widespread.

Modern cryptography is heavily based on mathematical theory and computer science practice; cryptographic algorithms are designed around computational hardness assumptions, making such algorithms hard to break in practice by any adversary. It is theoretically possible to break such a system but it is infeasible to do so by any known practical means. These schemes are therefore termed computationally secure; theoretical advances, e.g., improvements in integer factorization algorithms, and faster computing technology require these solutions to be continually adapted. There exist information-theoretically secure schemes that provably cannot be broken even with unlimited computing power—an example is the one-time pad—but these schemes are more difficult to implement than the best theoretically breakable but computationally secure mechanisms.

Cryptology-related technology has raised a number of legal issues. In the United Kingdom, additions to the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act 2000 require a suspected criminal to hand over his or her decryption key if asked by law enforcement. Otherwise the user will face a criminal charge.[5] The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) was involved in a case in the United States which questioned whether requiring suspected criminals to provide their decryption keys to law enforcement is unconstitutional. The EFF argued that this is a violation of the right of not being forced to incriminate oneself, as given in the fifth amendment.[6]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cryptanalysis

Cryptanalysis (from the Greek kryptós, "hidden", and analýein, "to loosen" or "to untie") is the art and science of analyzing information systems in order to study the hidden aspects of the systems.[1] Cryptanalysis is used to breach cryptographic security systems and gain access to the contents of encrypted messages, even if the cryptographic key is unknown.

In addition to mathematical analysis of cryptographic algorithms, cryptanalysis also includes the study of side-channel attacks that do not target weaknesses in the cryptographic algorithms themselves, but instead exploit weaknesses in their implementation.

Even though the goal has been the same, the methods and techniques of cryptanalysis have changed drastically through the history of cryptography, adapting to increasing cryptographic complexity, ranging from the pen-and-paper methods of the past, through machines like the British Bombes and Colossus computers at Bletchley Park in World War II, to the mathematically advanced computerized schemes of the present. Methods for breaking modern cryptosystems often involve solving carefully constructed problems in pure mathematics, the best-known being integer factorization.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kryptos

Kryptos is an encrypted sculpture by American artist Jim Sanborn located on the grounds of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) in Langley, Virginia. Since its dedication on November 3, 1990, there has been much speculation about the meaning of the encrypted messages it bears. Of the four messages, three have been solved, with the fourth remaining one of the most famous unsolved codes in the world. The sculpture continues to provide a diversion for cryptanalysts, both amateur and professional, who are attempting to decrypt the final section.

EMUFPHZLRFAXYUSDJKZLDKRNSHGNFIVJ
YQTQUXQBQVYUVLLTREVJYQTMKYRDMFD
VFPJUDEEHZWETZYVGWHKKQETGFQJNCE
GGWHKK?DQMCPFQZDQMMIAGPFXHQRLG
TIMVMZJANQLVKQEDAGDVFRPJUNGEUNA
QZGZLECGYUXUEENJTBJLBQCRTBJDFHRR
YIZETKZEMVDUFKSJHKFWHKUWQLSZFTI
HHDDDUVH?DWKBFUFPWNTDFIYCUQZERE
EVLDKFEZMOQQJLTTUGSYQPFEUNLAVIDX
FLGGTEZ?FKZBSFDQVGOGIPUFXHHDRKF
FHQNTGPUAECNUVPDJMQCLQUMUNEDFQ
ELZZVRRGKFFVOEEXBDMVPNFQXEZLGRE
DNQFMPNZGLFLPMRJQYALMGNUVPDXVKP
DQUMEBEDMHDAFMJGZNUPLGEWJLLAETG
ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZABCD
AKRYPTOSABCDEFGHIJLMNQUVWXZKRYP
BRYPTOSABCDEFGHIJLMNQUVWXZKRYPT
CYPTOSABCDEFGHIJLMNQUVWXZKRYPTO
DPTOSABCDEFGHIJLMNQUVWXZKRYPTOS
ETOSABCDEFGHIJLMNQUVWXZKRYPTOSA
FOSABCDEFGHIJLMNQUVWXZKRYPTOSAB
GSABCDEFGHIJLMNQUVWXZKRYPTOSABC
HABCDEFGHIJLMNQUVWXZKRYPTOSABCD
IBCDEFGHIJLMNQUVWXZKRYPTOSABCDE
JCDEFGHIJLMNQUVWXZKRYPTOSABCDEF
KDEFGHIJLMNQUVWXZKRYPTOSABCDEFG
LEFGHIJLMNQUVWXZKRYPTOSABCDEFGH
MFGHIJLMNQUVWXZKRYPTOSABCDEFGHI
ENDYAHROHNLSRHEOCPTEOIBIDYSHNAIA
CHTNREYULDSLLSLLNOHSNOSMRWXMNE
TPRNGATIHNRARPESLNNELEBLPIIACAE
WMTWNDITEENRAHCTENEUDRETNHAEOE
TFOLSEDTIWENHAEIOYTEYQHEENCTAYCR
EIFTBRSPAMHHEWENATAMATEGYEERLB
TEEFOASFIOTUETUAEOTOARMAEERTNRTI
BSEDDNIAAHTTMSTEWPIEROAGRIEWFEB
AECTDDHILCEIHSITEGOEAOSDDRYDLORIT
RKLMLEHAGTDHARDPNEOHMGFMFEUHE
ECDMRIPFEIMEHNLSSTTRTVDOHW?OBKR
UOXOGHULBSOLIFBBWFLRVQQPRNGKSSO
TWTQSJQSSEKZZWATJKLUDIAWINFBNYP
VTTMZFPKWGDKZXTJCDIGKUHUAUEKCAR
NGHIJLMNQUVWXZKRYPTOSABCDEFGHIJL
OHIJLMNQUVWXZKRYPTOSABCDEFGHIJL
PIJLMNQUVWXZKRYPTOSABCDEFGHIJLM
QJLMNQUVWXZKRYPTOSABCDEFGHIJLMN
RLMNQUVWXZKRYPTOSABCDEFGHIJLMNQ
SMNQUVWXZKRYPTOSABCDEFGHIJLMNQU
TNQUVWXZKRYPTOSABCDEFGHIJLMNQUV
UQUVWXZKRYPTOSABCDEFGHIJLMNQUVW
VUVWXZKRYPTOSABCDEFGHIJLMNQUVWX
WVWXZKRYPTOSABCDEFGHIJLMNQUVWXZ
XWXZKRYPTOSABCDEFGHIJLMNQUVWXZK
YXZKRYPTOSABCDEFGHIJLMNQUVWXZKR
ZZKRYPTOSABCDEFGHIJLMNQUVWXZKRY
ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZABCD

Pretty much the most famous wall of text on earth at present.

When it's all stacked up like above, it almost looks like an unrolled log!
Imagine the outer edges of the message making a big circle from side to side and connecting with the letter on the opposite end, like the edges of the same piece of paper meeting.

It seems very similar to the strange code depicted in the alien blueprints in the movie adaptation of Carl Sagan's CONTACT.

It was not until the analysts viewed the documents in 3D that they broke the code!

In the case of Kryptos it would be coming full circle or closing the loop!

close the loop
Web definitions
To follow up on and/or close out an area of discussion. Closely related to "circle back around" and "loop in."
http://www.johnsmurf.com/jargon.htm

If only it was that easy.

Closed-Loop vs. Open-Loop Authentication
Posted on April 3, 2013 by Francisco Corella
This is the second of a series of posts discussing the paper A Comprehensive Approach to Cryptographic and Biometric Authentication from a Mobile Perspective.

In this post I want to take the time to explain and emphasize the distinction made in the paper between closed-loop authentication and open-loop authentication. This may seem an unimportant matter of vocabulary, but the distinction is essential for two reasons: first, because it helps understand the privacy posture of authentication technologies; second, because it leads to what we think is the best choice of cryptographic authentication technologies for mobile devices.

The concepts of closed-loop and open-loop authentication are defined in the introduction, and examples are given. In open-loop authentication, a party such as a certificate authority or, more generally a credential authority, issues a cryptographic credential to the user’s device, and then is “out of the loop” when the device presents the credential to a relying party. Credentials used in open-loop authentication are typically public key certificates, but could also be U-Prove tokens or Idemix anonymous credentials. In closed-loop authentication, on the other hand, the credential authority is involved in the authentication process, taking care of verifying possession of the credential by the device. In third-party closed-loop authentication, the credential authority is an identity or attribute provider, which communicates user attributes to a relying party after verifying that the device possesses the credential. In two-party authentication, there is only one party besides the user’s device, so two-party authentication can only be closed-loop authentication.

The distinction between closed-loop and open-loop authentication makes it possible to make two observations.

The first observation is that closed-loop authentication can rely on an uncertified key pair, i.e. a key pair that is not bound to any attributes by a certificate. (As a matter of vocabulary, we say that an uncertified key pair is registered by the device with the credential authority, rather than issued by the credential authority to the device, because the credential authority plays no role in generating the key pair; the paper refers to the credential authority as “the party that issues or registers the credential”.) An uncertified key pair can be used because the credential authority can store user attributes in its internal storage and retrieve them at authentication time. Therefore the attributes need not be included in the credential.

The second observation is that, in third-party closed-loop authentication, the credential authority, i.e. the identity or attribute provider, is informed of the authentication transaction and, typically, is told what relying party the user is authenticating to. This impinges on the user’s privacy, especially if the user has no choice of identity or attribute provider and does not trust the provider. This is not just a theoretical consideration. The identity providers most commonly used today have track records of privacy violations, and users are wary of being spied upon.

[chocolate]

Tesla_WTC_Solution, one apprentice on-board.
Thread bookmarked .

[Sean Cullen]

Hi Tesla,

I can certainly recommend a great book to you which I think is ideal as a starting point. It is "The Code Breakers" by David Kahn, and is, in my view, one of the great seminal works on this subject. Is also very readable!

Seán

[korgh]

Yep! sounds interesting.
I'm on it

[Sean Cullen]

Hi Tesla,

This US army field manual (FM 34-40-2) is a really excellent work, suitable for self-training in all the basic systems. It appears to be freely available on the 'net' and is downloadable as a 8MB PDF. Although I have heard that it does state "For Official Use Only" on the cover page, it seems to be in the public domain for many years...



Seán

[spiritguide]

Cryptology is beyond symbolism and is correctly classified as adjunct to spatial perception. Night vision is an example of seeing and analysing with proper understanding of the effects of light on vision.

Peace!

[chocolate]

I am wondering how is this going to work, especially if one is with very little knowledge on the subject.
Being a person with a more 'spatial perception' this subject was something that always interested me, but never got around to actually learning the basics. Thus, my next question: What is a good place to start? Practically, I mean?
Wikipedia comes as a supplement only.

Or may be Tesla will expand on that in a later post?

[spiritguide]

Read the dictionary including weight and measures, paying attention to root words and meanings. Daisy chaining results will enable you to perceive that common language is a form of cryptology. Root meanings, no matter what language, are historical reference where contemporary accepted meaning is adapted to misguide the understanding of the receptor. Alegories are also a form of crypto.

[Sidney]

Hint hint ...........................

[sheme]

Hello guys and girls of Avalon!
I apologize for making so many posts today!
Needless to say, some of us caught some of that incoming solar flare energy!!
This is a complete noob's attempt to get some smart people on-board;
Help me by contributing to this special Avalon-only project:
In the following posts, if they arrive on schedule, there should be a lot to learn.
No one should feel left out, not even speakers of other languages than English;
There is plenty of time for all to participate and enjoy the subtle art of coding.



Hello guys and girls of Avalon!
Needless to say, some of us caught some of that incoming solar flare energy!!
Help me by contributing to this special Avalon-only project:
No one should feel left out, not even speakers of other languages than English;


I apologize for making so many posts today!
This is a complete noob's attempt to get some smart people on-board;
In the following posts, if they arrive on schedule, there should be a lot to learn.
There is plenty of time for all to participate and enjoy the subtle art of coding.


Self confessed noob here. What fun.

[Praxis]

Also, it would be interesting to start developing a visual language in order to help people and animals with sensory issues (such as autism) to communicate freely with other human beings at will, with or without the help of technology. A good working knowledge of code, symbology, etc. would be of extreme helpfulness in developing such a language.

All humans already speak the same language. If this were not the case then we would not be able to translate between Arabic and English for instance. The difference between Arabic and English is that they both employ difference phonemes(sounds) and graphemes(written words) to construct meaning. For instance: cat is not the actually a cat but is merely the pointer to the idea that is cat. Gato is a different pointer to the same idea.

The general counter to this is" Well X language has a word for something that is not translateable." In French they have the word "le mie" which is the center of the bead that is not the crust. They are right, we do not have a single word translation for this word in English because we have not had a need to convey this particular meaning and therefore we dont have the word for it. But we still can understand the idea of it without having the word. The english compensation is generally borrowing( while the French seek to keep the languagee pure and make "French" words for things like sexting "http://newsfeed.time.com/2013/12/19/ooh-la-la-the-french-word-for-sexting-is-textopornographie/)
Furthermore, the Inuit have many words for the different types of snow as they have a need to describe the subtleties of the environment around them( like wet snow may be more dangerous that drier snow so they have two words to differentiate those specific ideas which fall under the superordinate term Snow) Arabic would have no use for all these different concepts and therefore has probably just one word for snow(but probably many different types of sand!) However, youcould still get an Arabic speaking person to understand the different concepts conveyed by all the snow terms.

I am not quite sure what you mean by a visual language then. Could you elaborate by what you had envisioned? Also this is something i ask people around me: Do you think in pictures? Do you have a inner monologue with yourself? How doyou think?

I generally will talk to myself in my head to think about things. I can visualize in picture sometimes but I do not feel that is my natural way of processing ideas.

What I think you are asking for is basically telepathy. THis would be the only way of having a visual language in the way I think you mean. I conceptualize a picture in my mind that conveys meaning and then somehow I give that image to another(human or non). This would be doing what we do now, but without the sounds that are put together to make words that convey meaning.

This could also be constrained to use among people on this planet. All humans speak the same language of ideas. Maybe even the animals of our planet might conceptualize the universe in close enough way that we could share ideas with them as well. So that when we mean cat, they understand a four legged feline of a certain sort. However, how far does this extend? Would we have a common enough base with an Alien form to be able to share ideas?

Sorry if that rambled. I stream of consciousness many times here and you stumbled on my profession(linguistics/ TEFL) so ifelt compelled to chime in. I am very interested in this visual language Idea and have been thinking about it and the nature of communcating meaning since i started my studies. I feel that we have the capability we just need the proper understanding. Like remote viewing, i believe there must be a system that develops your ability to project this visual language(or broadcast maybe and this maybe why we have failed because we focus too much on directing it?) which basically will be the foundation of telepathy, if it is at all possible( which based on the Sheldrake stuff I believe it is definitely possible!)

[Tesla_WTC_Solution]

I am really happy to see this many people interested in this topic!

Thanks especially to our resident experts and veterans, who have already contributed great links.
The book mentioned above, "The Code Breakers", isn't in my library yet But I will try!

Sidney was the first person to openly point out the short message tacked onto the first post.
She accurately spied the words "HINT HINT", spelled vertically using the first letter of each sentence.

This simple and somewhat unreliable technique was used as a sort of joke between some weathermen and the feds, spelling out the words "Please pay us" in a forecast document.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/arti...-forecast.html

'Please Pay Us': Government weathermen going without pay during shutdown leave coded message in forecast
Anchorage National Weather Service office released forecast with secret message: 'Please pay us'

Thousands of 'essential' workers are not exempt from federal government shutdown furlough but aren't getting paid

By DAILY MAIL REPORTER
PUBLISHED: 08:20 EST, 5 October 2013 | UPDATED: 11:41 EST, 5 October 2013



Follow us: @MailOnline on Twitter | DailyMail on Facebook

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VISUAL LANGUAGES

Hello 9ofClubs! I wanted to answer your question about visual language.
As a linguist, you may have heard of PECS -- the "Picture Exchange Communication System".

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Picture...ication_System

PECS (at least right now!) is at a slow and cumbersome stage, at least for people using cards instead of an electronic device. It provides a non-verbal means of communicating an idea to another person via a picture card. This method is used to help children with autism, whose visual processing speeds vastly exceed their auditory processing speeds in some cases.

A good resource for this could be Temple Grandin's "Thinking in Pictures".

Well, remote viewers communicate in pictures oftentimes. That means there are other people, verbal people, who also have the ability to think in pictures. It is not know which is the more ancient means of communication, but I am guessing that the symbol or gesture definitely predated the word.

A truly visual language would permit the communication of general ideas and subtlety at the same time. It would not restrict the user to a rubber band's worth of paper cards. Using modern technology and creative visual art, it may be possible to develop a working picture language for autistic people who have trouble with phonics or understanding words that are broken up compared to a whole image.

We also approach the terms "Rote" and "Gestalt" when we deal with learning and communication. Parents who obsess, for example, and try to teach by rote, may find themselves confounded by the high-functioning autistic child, who may think in terms of the bigger picture and have no patience for the petty parental concerns.

We are often told that autistic kids learn by rote, and often, later in their development, the opposite becomes true. They become deep thinkers and extremely visual communicators. Many realize an interest in art and photography.

It wouldn't take much work (I hope) if people crowdsourced a project as big as this one, and the users of the visual language got to vote on which versions of symbols or images best fit the concept or role of communicating an idea.

The problem with PECS at present is that it is too slow for the kids using it, alien to the teacher once it gets too complicated...

I am not sure if there is any relation between cultures that used hieroglyphs and the urge to build great things, but judging by the pyramids, it would be logical to assume that a culture of visually-motivated people could have easily figured out how to accomplish that and actually enjoy it.

Example of PECS:


__________________________________________________________

CODE BREAKING FOR BEGINNERS:

The following PDF has some exercises that would ordinarily be given in class.
But these are a bit challenging for some kids... plenty hard enough for adults who have no background in ciphering.

http://www.awm.gov.au/kidshq/data/up...0beginners.pdf

CODE BREAKING FOR BEGINNERS

♦ Always start by counting up the number of times each letter occurs in the message.

♦ E is the most frequently occurring letter, T is the next.

♦ After these comes A, O, N, I, R and S – all six of them are of about equal frequency.

♦ One of the letters in any two−letter word has to be A, E, I, O, U or Y.

♦ More than half the words in the language end in E, D, S or T.

♦ More than half begin with T, A, O, S or W.

♦ A letter forming a word on its own is certain to be A or I – unless it’s the initial of someone’s name.

♦ A letter ending in G is very likely to end ING.

♦ The most common three−letter words are THE and AND.

♦ Don’t forget to do your alphabet diagrams as soon as you’ve decoded enough letters to make it worthwhile.

Here is an example:

UIF LFZ UP UIF HBSBHF EPPS JT JO UIF TIFE

There is plenty more material (including hints) on the worksheet above! The link ends in .gov so it ought to be ok.

__________________________________________________________________



CIA KIDS' PAGE (wtf)

https://www.cia.gov/kids-page/games/break-the-code

Break the Code

Codes have been used throughout history whenever people wanted to keep messages private. In American history, George Washington sent coded messages to his agents, and the Culper Spy ring used codes to communicate with each other. Members of the Continental Congress also encoded their documents. Read about the Enigma decoding machine and the role it played in World War II.

If you're up to the challenge, try to decode the following messages. Read the directions carefully and bust those codes! After decoding each message, click on the "Verify Code" button to see if you were successful.

https://www.cia.gov/kids-page/games/...de/code-1.html
https://www.cia.gov/kids-page/games/...de/code-2.html
https://www.cia.gov/kids-page/games/...de/code-3.html
https://www.cia.gov/kids-page/games/...de/code-4.html
https://www.cia.gov/kids-page/games/...de/code-5.html
https://www.cia.gov/kids-page/games/...igma-code.html

I won't link to the answer page because you guys shouldn't look at it!
You should be able to see the link to it however, by going to the following:

https://www.cia.gov/kids-page/games/break-the-code

_________________________________________________________

http://www.counton.org/explorer/codebreaking/

Codebreaking

Introduction

Welcome to a world of secrecy, spies and subterfuge. Ciphers and codes have been around since the Romans, and are one of the oldest forms of secret communication.
Cryptography is the science of encoding and decoding secret messages. It is all around us in everyday life, when we send emails to our friends and colleagues, or when we buy something over the internet using a credit card. It is constantly evolving as cryptographers endeavour to break existing codes and create new unbreakable codes.

Although we tend to use the words code and cipher interchangeabley, they actually have quite distinct meanings. Both are a cryptopgraphic system where the original message (the plaintext) is arbitrarily transformed according to a predetermined system.
Typically, a code is an encryption system at the level of words or phrases. So, each word or phrase is assigned a symbol to represent it. So, you might have a codebook like this:

our message, ‘The Prime Minister of England will be assassinated at midnight by a spy’ might be encoded as ‘The green cow will read the book at the supermarket’
On the other hand, in a cipher, the encryption is done at the level of the letter, making it far more difficult to crack, and therefore more secure.


Steganography

Although modern cryptographic developments such as PGP and RSA are extremely secure, we all know that they are hiding secret information, and so are vulnerable to attack. Steganography (literally ‘covered writing’)is the art and science of hiding messages within seemingly trivial places. This is the stegotext. The ancient Greek historian Herodotus writes of slaves sent as messengers who had their heads tattooed with secret information warning the Greeks of Persian invasion plans. The slaves’ hair would then grow back on the long journey and the message was only revealed when their heads were shaved!! The Greeks also carved messages into wooden tablets and then covered them with a thin layer of wax to make them look as if they were new and unused tablets.

Nowadays, it works by replacing bits of unused data in computer files with the secret information, often securely encrypted beforehand. Messages can even be encrypted into images, so you could be sending secret information embedded in a picture of you on holiday!

In World War II, the Germans invented the use of microdots to send information securely. These tiny dots were the size of a full stop and contained vital information undetectable to the human eye, such as a meeting time, or an address. Being so small they often went unnoticed by the inspectors and could only be read by the intended recipient with the use of a microscope. British intelligence often referred to microdots as ‘duff’, because the dots would be spread throughout letters like raisins in the English steamed pudding Plum Duff!!
Velvalee Dickinson, a Japanese spy in New York during World War II was a dealer in dolls. She disguised her secret messages in details of doll shipments and repairs, but in fact was alluding to movements of the US fleet. Her letters were interecepted and translated by the FBI and she was caught and imprisoned.

http://www.counton.org/explorer/code...on-ciphers.php
http://www.counton.org/explorer/code...sar-cipher.php
http://www.counton.org/explorer/code...pen-cipher.php
http://www.counton.org/explorer/code...y-analysis.php
http://www.counton.org/explorer/code...ere-cipher.php
http://www.counton.org/explorer/code...gma-cipher.php
http://www.counton.org/explorer/code...e-time-pad.php
http://www.counton.org/explorer/code...ey-systems.php
______________________________________________________


http://www.vectorsite.net/ttcode.html

Codes, Ciphers, & Codebreaking

v2.3.1 / TOC (13 chapters) / 01 nov 12 / greg goebel / public domain
* Codes, ciphers, and codebreaking have been around for millennia, with the survival of nations sometimes hanging on the security of codes and ciphers. With modern computer networking, they have become important in day-to-day life. This document provides a technical and historical introduction to codes, ciphers, and codebreaking.


[1.0] Introduction To Codes, Ciphers, & Codebreaking

[1.1] BASIC CONCEPTS
[1.2] SIMPLE SUBSTITUTION CIPHERS
[1.3] SIMPLE TRANSPOSITIONS
[1.4] FREQUENCY ANALYSIS AGAINST CIPHERS
[1.5] CRACKING CODES / CODES VERSUS CIPHERS
[2.0] Refining The Art

[2.1] CRYPTANALYSIS ARISES IN THE WEST
[2.2] POLYALPHABETIC SUBSTITUTION CIPHERS / THE VIGENERE CIPHER
[2.3] OTHER CIPHER REFINEMENTS
[2.4] CIPHERS GO PUBLIC
[3.0] The Rise Of Field Ciphers

[3.1] TELEGRAPHY & CRYPTOLOGY
[3.2] CRACKING THE VIGENERE CIPHER
[3.3] THE UNION ROUTE CIPHER / MULTIPLE ANAGRAMMING
[3.4] POLYBIUS, BIFID, PLAYFAIR, & STRADDLING CHECKERBOARD CIPHERS
[3.5] GRILLES & TURNING GRILLES
[4.0] Codes & Codebreakers In World War I

[4.1] ROOM 40 & THE ZIMMERMANN TELEGRAM / GERMAN CODEBREAKERS
[4.2] TRENCH CODES
[4.3] GEORGES PAINVIN & THE ADFGX / ADFGVX CIPHERS
[4.4] JOSEPH MAUBORGNE & THE ONE-TIME PAD CIPHER
[5.0] The Mechanization of Ciphers

[5.1] CIPHER DISKS
[5.2] THE BAZERIES CYLINDER
[5.3] SCHERBIUS & THE ENIGMA
[5.4] TELEPHONE SCRAMBLERS / SIGSALY
[6.0] US Codebreakers In The Shadow Of War

[6.1] HERBERT O. YARDLEY & THE ORIGINS OF AMERICAN CRYPTANALYSIS
[6.2] WILLIAM FRIEDMAN / US ARMY SIS
[6.3] US NAVY OP-20-G
[6.4] SIS CRACKS RED & PURPLE / CORAL & JADE
[6.5] OP-20-G VERSUS JN-25
[6.6] PEARL HARBOR
[7.0] US Codebreakers In World War II

[7.1] CRACKING JN-25
[7.2] THE SIS IN WORLD WAR II
[7.3] THE US ECM MARK II CIPHER MACHINE
[7.4] THE NAVAHO CODE-TALKERS
[7.5] VENONA
[7.6] ORIGINS OF THE NSA
[8.0] British Codebreakers In World War II

[8.1] THE POLES CRACK ENIGMA
[8.2] BLETCHLEY PARK & ULTRA
[8.3] BLETCHLEY PARK AGAINST ENIGMA
[8.4] THE AMERICAN CONNECTION
[8.5] BLETCHLEY PARK CRACKS NAVAL ENIGMA
[8.6] WINTERBOTHAM PUBLISHES THE ULTRA SECRET
[9.0] Lorenz & Colossus

[9.1] TELECIPHER SYSTEMS
[9.2] THE LORENZ SX-40/42 TELECIPHER MACHINES
[9.3] HEATH ROBINSON & COLOSSUS
[9.4] FOOTNOTE -- BORIS HAGELIN & THE M-209
[10.0] Digital Ciphers & Public-Key Cryptography

[10.1] THE KW-26 / STREAM CIPHERS, BLOCK CIPHERS, & DES
[10.2] DIFFIE, HELLMAN, MERKLE, & THE KEY DISTRIBUTION PROBLEM
[10.3] HELLMAN SOLVES THE KEY-EXCHANGE PROBLEM
[10.4] DIFFIE "INVENTS" PUBLIC-KEY CRYPTOGRAPHY
[10.5] RSA
[10.6] GCHQ & THE SHADOW HISTORY OF PUBLIC-KEY CRYPTOGRAPHY
[11.0] Contemporary Cryptology

[11.1] MESSAGE AUTHENTICATION & DIGITAL SIGNATURES
[11.2] PHIL ZIMMERMANN AND PGP
[11.3] INTERNET CRYPTOGRAPHY: SSL & IPSEC
[11.4] GNUPG / ELLIPTIC-CURVE CIPHERS / AES
[11.5] DIGITAL STEGANOGRAPHY
[11.6] FOOTNOTE: RKE SYSTEMS, SMART CARDS, & PASSWORDS
[12.0] Frontiers In Cryptology

[12.1] THE POLITICS OF CIPHERS
[12.2] QUANTUM COMPUTING & CODEBREAKING
[12.3] QUANTUM CRYPTOGRAPHY
[13.0] The Cryptological Fringe

[13.1] BIBLE CODES & THEIR KIN
[13.2] THE VOYNICH MANUSCRIPT
[13.3] COMMENTS, SOURCES, & REVISION HISTORY

________________________________________

Crypto forum?

http://s13.zetaboards.com/Crypto/forum/3144/

Challenges

http://s13.zetaboards.com/Crypto/forum/3141/

________________________________________

http://cryptanalysis.eu/blog/

Plausible Deniability

Plausible deniability is a term coined by the CIA in the early 1960s to describe the withholding of information from senior officials in order to protect them from repercussions in the event that illegal or unpopular activities by the CIA became public knowledge.

The term most often refers to the capacity of senior officials in a formal or informal chain of command to deny knowledge of and/or responsibility for any damnable actions committed by the lower ranks because of a lack of evidence that can confirm their participation, even if they were personally involved or at least willfully ignorant of said actions. In the case that illegal or otherwise disreputable and unpopular activities become public, high-ranking officials may deny any awareness of such act in order to insulate themselves and shift blame on the agents who carried out the acts, confident that their doubters will be unable to prove otherwise. The lack of evidence to the contrary ostensibly makes the denial plausible, that is, credible. The term typically implies forethought, such as intentionally setting up the conditions to plausibly avoid responsibility for one's (future) actions or knowledge. In some organizations, legal doctrines such as command responsibility exist to hold major parties responsible for the actions of subordinates involved in heinous acts and nullify any legal protection that their denial of involvement would carry.

In politics and espionage, deniability refers to the ability of a "powerful player" or intelligence agency to "pass the buck" and avoid "blowback" by secretly arranging for an action to be taken on their behalf by a third party ostensibly unconnected with the major player. In political campaigns, plausible deniability enables candidates to stay "clean" and denounce third-party advertisements that use unethical approaches or potentially libellous innuendo.

More generally, "plausible deniability" can also apply to any act that leaves little or no evidence of wrongdoing or abuse. Examples of this are the use of electric shock, waterboarding or pain-compliance holds as a means of non-invasive torture or punishment, leaving few or no tangible signs that the abuse ever took place.

Plausible deniability is also a legal concept. It refers to lack of evidence proving an allegation. Standards of proof vary in civil and criminal cases. In civil cases, the standard of proof is "preponderance of the evidence" whereas in a criminal matter, the standard is "beyond a reasonable doubt." If an opponent lacks incontrovertible proof (evidence) of their allegation, one can "plausibly deny" the allegation even though it may be true.

[sheme]

Thanks for this- great fun and informative.

[CD7]

Ha all very interesting mostly about patterns....in the Kryptos there is definitely a pattern...(tried to highlight but didn't let me)

One can notice the "wave" patterns in the code and an obvious counting out of the alphabet front ways and backwards on either side of the word Kryptos patterned up and down in wave pattern only. Not familiar with the rules of code breaking but this part of the Kryptos definitely pops out

[Tesla_WTC_Solution]

Posted by CD7 (here)
Ha all very interesting mostly about patterns....in the Kryptos there is definitely a pattern...(tried to highlight but didn't let me)

One can notice the "wave" patterns in the code and an obvious counting out of the alphabet front ways and backwards on either side of the word Kryptos patterned up and down in wave pattern only. Not familiar with the rules of code breaking but this part of the Kryptos definitely pops out

The hateful pop of Kryptos lol

When the 4 panels are put one on top of the other,
you can see that the cascading letters are continuous @_@

Didn't know that til we made this thread, hah --

looks like some sort of ram's horn or icicle.

[Tesla_WTC_Solution]

A little bit before 8:00 minutes, I think, there is a bit about a Gang Unit in the USA's 5th largest jail.
This section of the video talks about deciphering the hidden messages in gang-related tattoo art, etc.

(segment only about a minute long -- wait -- there's still more [i am still watching it lol])

Gangs in Prison | National Geographic Documentary

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=D1EyAdwz974

Here is another shorter one:

Prison Tattoos and Their Secret Meanings

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=hOQ5TlAtXuM

QR Guinea Pigs Willing to Tattoo Themselves With QR Code:

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=Mo7qzIkoD7Q

[Tesla_WTC_Solution]

"sending a message as DNA"

http://www.thinkbiotech.com/DNA-o-gram/encode.php

Send a DNA-o-gram


Your message will be encoded as DNA and you will be given the option to email the encoded message. The message will be accompanied by instructions on how to decode the message.

The actual DNA alphabet uses only 20 symbols. The DNA-o-gram generator lets you use the letters A-Z, a-z, numbers 0-9, <space>, and . .

Your message was:

how many licks does it take to get to the center of a tootsie pop?

Your encoded message is:

GAGGGCTAGATGGCTCGTGGATCAATGGCGGATCTCGCCGTCATGCTGGGCCTTGTCATGGATGTTATGGTTCGTGCCCTTATGGTTGGCATGGACCTTG TTATGGTTGGCATGGTTGAGC

___________________________________

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hollow_Nickel_Case

The Hollow Nickel Case (also known as The Hollow Coin), refers to the method that the Soviet Union spy Vilyam Genrikhovich Fisher (aka Rudolf Ivanovich Abel) used to exchange information between himself and his contacts, including Mikhail Nikolaevich Svirin and Reino Häyhänen.

On June 22, 1953, a newspaper boy (fourteen-year-old Jimmy Bozart), collecting for the Brooklyn Eagle, at an apartment building at 3403 Foster Avenue in the Brooklyn borough of New York City, was paid with a nickel (U.S. five cent piece) that felt too light to him. When he dropped it on the ground, it popped open, revealing that it contained microfilm. The microfilm contained a series of numbers. He told the daughter of a New York City Police Department officer, that officer told a detective who in two days told an FBI agent about the strange nickel.[1]

After agent Louis Hahn of the FBI obtained the nickel and the microfilm, the agency tried to find out where the nickel had come from and what the numbers meant. The nickel had a 1948 front, but the back was minted sometime between 1942 and 1945, based on the copper-silver alloys used. There were five digits together in each number, 21 sets of five in seven columns and another 20 sets in three columns, making a total of 207 sets of five digits. There was no key for the numbers. The FBI tried for nearly four years to find the origin of the nickel and the meaning of the numbers.[1]

But it was not until KGB agent Reino Häyhänen (aka Eugene Nicolai Mäki) wanted to defect in May 1957 from Paris, that the FBI was able to link the nickel to KGB agents, including Mikhail Nikolaevich Svirin (a former United Nations employee) and Vilyam Genrikhovich Fisher. Häyhänen was being recalled to Moscow for good, and defected on the way back in Paris. The deciphered message in the nickel turned out to be worthless, a personal message to Häyhänen from the KGB in Moscow welcoming him to the U.S. and instructing him on getting set up.[1] He gave the FBI the information that it needed to crack the cipher, uncover the identity of his two main contacts in New York (Svirin and Fisher), and a nearly identically made Finnish 50 Markka coin.[1]

In addition to Svirin and Fisher (code name "Mark"), Häyhänen (code name "Vic") told the FBI about Vitali G. Pavlov, a former Soviet embassy official in Ottawa; Aleksandr Mikhailovich Korotkov; and U.S. Army Sergeant Roy Rhodes (code name "Quebec"), who had once worked in the garage of the U.S. embassy in Moscow. The Soviets were able to get to Rhodes because it had "compromising materials" about him. Häyhänen and Fisher were in the United States mainly looking for information on the U.S. atomic program and U.S. Navy submarine information.[2][3]

Svirin had returned to the Soviet Union in October 1956 and was not available for questioning or arrest.[1]

When Fisher was arrested, the hotel room and photo studio that he lived in contained multiple modern espionage equipment items: cameras and film for producing microdots, cipher pads, cuff links, hollow shaving brush, shortwave radios, and numerous "trick" containers.[1]

Fisher was brought to trial in New York City Federal Court and indicted as a Russian spy in October 1957 on three counts:[1]

Conspiracy to transmit defense information to the Soviet Union;
Conspiracy to obtain defense information; and
Conspiracy to act in the United States as an agent of a foreign government without notification to the Secretary of State.
Häyhänen testified against Fisher at the trial.[1][3]

On October 25, 1957, the jury found Fisher guilty on all three counts. On November 15, 1957, Judge Mortimer W. Byers sentenced Fisher to three sentences to be served concurrently:

30 years' imprisonment;
10 years' imprisonment and $2,000 fine;
5 years' imprisonment and $1,000 fine.[1]
On February 10, 1962, Fisher was exchanged for American Central Intelligence Agency Lockheed U-2 pilot Francis Gary Powers, who was a prisoner of the Soviet Union.[1]

________________________________________

I guess our own government doesn't always know which messages are worth bothering with and which are worth throwing away. It's a bit sad that 4 years could be wasted on a "Hello world" blurb.

[GreenGuy]

Posted by Tesla_WTC_Solution (here)
I am hoping that by learning about code, I can exercise my mind in a positive and constructive manner, while still receiving the benefit of having deconstructed something (if only on paper or in my mind!). Code-breaking is a very stimulating, educated, and non-violent sport/hobby/pastime and should not be regarded as taboo, strange, terroristic, or boring (because it's really quite fascinating!)....

I am interested in how much information on this subject we users can successfully impart to one another. I have no intention of using the information to be posted in this thread for any purpose other than my own education, along with other users. Whether the thread remains public or private is open to member vote...

This is the kind of fascinating stuff I love to stumble across - Avalon has a lot of these gems scattered around the various forums...I too am not especially savvy in the use or breaking of codes, and I too was piqued by the use of codes in The Da Vinci Code. The reason I'm glad to see it here is that I see a need for expanded use of codes by ordinary folks. The kind that doesn't get picked up by surveillance. It should have a written as well as visual versions, maybe something akin to the secret handshakes of the Masons. We need a second level of communication, in other words.

[Agape]

Could be of interest ...

http://barrybeck.com/forms/siegfried.pdf

A BEAUTIFUL MATH

JOHN NASH,
GAME THEORY,
AND THE
MODERN QUEST
FOR A CODE
OF NATURE

Tom Siegfried

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=uP9JsrZ1XPs

http://www.nsa.gov/public_info/_file...h_letters1.pdf

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Forbes_Nash


John Forbes Nash, Jr. (born June 13, 1928) is an American mathematician whose works in game theory, differential geometry, and partial differential equations have provided insight into the forces that govern chance and events inside complex systems in daily life. His theories are used in market economics, computing, evolutionary biology, artificial intelligence, accounting, politics and military theory. Serving as a Senior Research Mathematician at Princeton University during the latter part of his life, he shared the 1994 Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences with game theorists Reinhard Selten and John Harsanyi.
Nash is the subject of the 2001 Hollywood movie A Beautiful Mind. The film, loosely based on the biography of the same name, focuses on Nash's mathematical genius and also his schizophrenia

[mojo]

neat thread... back in 2011 posted what was perhaps visual communication between ETs or maybe to the camera doing filming...definitely unusual and in all the years no help forthcoming on figuring it out... If you happen to check the link... There's a little zoom before it gets pixelated...
https://youtube.com/watch?v=0v4LAqLpwDI