rz1.razorpoint.com — A very interesting read about a former NSA cryptologist cracking a confederate code from the Civil War. Rather topical in light of the recent cracking of some WWII enigma codes, the current NSA stories in the news and, of course, all the "cryptography" in the imminent release of the Da Vinci Code. Interesting stuff.
May 15, 2006 View in Crawl 4
knotsMay 15, 2006
my apologies
chrissyk1227May 15, 2006
This is really neat.We're studying the Civil War in my sophomore American History class.I'm gonna print out a copy for the teacher; she'll think it's interesting.:)
knotsMay 15, 2006
the good stuff The Confederacy also used the telegraph for tactical communications in the field and for messages between Richmond and military commands. Like the Union telegraphers, Southerner operators usually encrypted messages. The Confederates’ preferred encryption system was known as the Vigenere substitution cipher, named after Blaise de Vigenere, the 16th-century French diplomat who developed it. The encipherment depended upon the use of a keyword used to set up a matrix in which a letter acquired different equivalent each time it was used in a message. Union codebreakers cracked the code because Confederates usually employed only a few keywords and encrypted only important words.For example, in a warning message sent to a general by President Jefferson Davis, the text read: “By this you may effect O—TPGGEXVK above that part—HJOPGKWMCT— patrolled…” The Union cryptanalyst, beginning with guesses, deciphered the first jumble of word as a crossing and the second as the river (words were often encrypted without spaces between them). Knowing the basic Vigenere system, he then worked out the keyword as CompleteVictory, and with this, he could break subsequent messages until the keyword was changed. Keyword changes, however, did not guarantee message security; for by knowing that a keyword had to be 15 letters long, Union cryptanalysts had a solid clue when they tried to break a message. (Union cryptanalysts also helped to break up a Confederate counterfeiting ring based in New York City.)
Closed AccountMay 15, 2006
Hey guys, heres a vb version of the confederate code mechanism... that I wrote after reading the article.<a class="user" href="http://www.digg.com/technology/Visual_Basic_version_of_the_confederate_coding_mechanism">http://www.digg.com/technology/Visual_Basic_version_of_the_confederate_coding_mechanism</a>
wilwheatonMay 15, 2006
Wow. This is incredibly cool. I can just imagine how it felt to figure out that cipher and watch the message unfold. Thanks for submitting this, gdiggnyc.
jimdiggMay 16, 2006
"Dr. Boklan has provided cryptographic consulting services to several New York City agencies including...the Department of Sanitation"Using the key code "trash" I was able to decipher the NYC Department of Sanitation's message and it reads... "We will be picking up trash on Tuesday".
Closed AccountSep 11, 2008
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