] According to Tubul, his group controls 450,000 "Trojaned"
] systems, most of them home computers running Windows with
] high-speed connections. The hacked systems contain
] special software developed by the Polish group that
] routes traffic between Internet users and customers'
] websites through thousands of the hijacked computers. The
] numerous intermediary systems confound tools such as
] traceroute, effectively laundering the true location of
] the website. To utilize the service, customers simply
] configure their sites to use any of several domain-name
] system servers controlled by the Polish group, Tubul
] said.

According to the article, this may have been one of the original purposes of the Sobig worm.

Wired News: Cloaking Device Made for Spammers

I'll be interviewed on a drive-time talkradio show on Monday, October 13, 2003, at 8:20 a.m. Central. The interviewer will be author / ex-CNN reporter / occasionally controversial Charles Jaco.

For anyone that wants to get up that early to listen to the 10-minute live segment, you can get the webcast by registering and installing a (free) app from the below link.

I'll also do my best to get a digital version of the show uploaded to my site afterwards, which I'll meme for those who wish to do their listening at a more "civilized" hour (grin).

Elonka :)

Cyrillic Projector on the Radio, 10/13/2003

] The "Cyrillic Projector" is just one of a number of code-bearing
] sculptures created by artist James Sanborn. The most famous,
] Kryptos, made front-page headlines in 1999 when code-breakers
] deciphered three-quarters of the secret message in the stone and
] metal sculpture. The last part, however, is still uncracked.

For those who aren't AAAS members, I also have a mirror page of the Science Magazine article here:

 http://www.elonka.com/kryptos/mirrors/ScienceMagazine.html

(subscription reqd) Science Magazine - Cryptic Sculpture Cracked

] After a decade, the mystery revolving around the Cyrillic
] Projector, located in the area between the Fretwell and
] Friday buildings, has been solved by an international
] group of cryptographers, the Kryptos Group.

This is from the University of North Carolina-Charlotte campus newspaper.

NinerOnline.com - Campus mystery solved

Rattle wrote:
] This is a really good write-up on Elonka's adventures cracking
] the cryptic (literally) artwork of James Sanborn.

Thanks to everyone for the kind words!

Elonka :)

****
December 3, 2003 update: The article has evidently already scrolled off the STLToday website, so I have created a mirror here:

 http://www.elonka.com/mirrors/STL/sights.html

RE: STLtoday - Woman sets sights on code on CIA sculpture

This is the website of "MetaCortex", the company that Neo worked for in the Matrix. There's a lot of info here, and evidently multiple puzzles waiting to be solved. It's one of those "Alternate Reality Games", like Majestic. I'm way too busy with Kryptos & Cyrillic Projector stuff at the moment to dig into it, but it looks like fun, so I wanted to at least meme it.

More info is here:
http://www.cs.uiowa.edu/~mlpatter/matrix/

Enjoy,

Elonka :)

Matrix Puzzle - MetaCortex Headquarters

] Internet security experts are divided on the source and
] purpose of computer viruses and worms like Blaster and
] SoBig. But some government agencies are investigating a
] possible connection between the increasing spread of
] infected computers and organized crime.

Speculation that the Sobig worm wasn't created by a kiddie or someone trying to make a point about security or even by a group of spammers, but by a much darker shade of black hat . . .

Computer Viruses and Organized Crime

The University of Maryland has named the Cyrillic Projector and its solution as "Lesson 4" in one of their Fall cryptography courses.

University of Maryland - Cyrillic Projector Studies

] There are seven different kinds of tuna that are
] typically offered as either canned or fresh tuna:
] albacore, bigeye, blackfin, bluefin, bonito, skipjack,
] and yellowfin. Of these, the three found most
] commonly in sushi bars are albacore, yellowfin and
] bluefin. Skipjack, while occasionally found in sushi bars,
] is more commonly touted by Charlie the Tuna as canned tuna.

Finally, an explanation that I can understand about the differences between canned tuna and the various kinds of sushi and sashimi tuna. :)

Google Answers: Sushi Tuna, Canned Tuna, and white tuna?

] An international group of cryptographers, the Kryptos
] Group, announced this week that the decade-old Cyrillic
] Projector Code has been cracked, and that it deciphers to
] some classified KGB instructions and correspondence.
]
] The Cyrillic Projector is an encrypted sculpture at the
] University of North Carolina in Charlotte, that was
] created by Washington DC artist James Sanborn in the
] early 1990s. It was inspired by the encrypted Kryptos
] sculpture that Sanborn created two years earlier for CIA
] Headquarters.
]
] The message on the Cyrillic Projector has turned out to
] be in two parts. The decrypted first part is a Russian
] text encouraging secret agents to psychologically control
] potential sources of information. The second part appears
] to be a partial quote from classified KGB correspondence
] about the Soviet dissident Sakharov, with concerns that
] his report to the Pugwash conference was being used by
] the Americans for an anti-Soviet agenda.

Press Release: The Cyrillic Projector Code Has Been Solved