] There exists a series of 'nonsense' postings in Usenet.
] (Please no jokes about Usenet already being full of
] nonsense). Obviously computer generated. These often
] have Arabic names interspersed in the content.
]
] One speculation is they might just be 'merry pranksters'
] posting vast amounts of nonsense to confuse Usenet
] readers.
]
] Another speculation is this might be the 'increased
] al-Qaeda chatter' we hear about when the Home Land
] Security changes the color to a redder hue. Note the
] increase just after Dec. 22 (the date that the Shoe
] Bomber was captured trying to blow up Miami to Paris,
] flight AA 63). We need to do a lot more research on this.

Some of it also looks to me like random computer-generated fiction sent to lists such as "alt.test". Still, I agree it's worth checking.

Al-Qaeda Chatter on UseNet?

] Thursday : Lingering showers throughout the day. Chance
] of rain 800 percent.
]
] Friday : Moist. Damp. Sodden.
]
] Saturday : Rainish. Showery. Precipitacious.
]
] Sunday : Light rain followed by heavy rain followed by
] pouring.

Okay, why is this in the cryptography topic? It's because I think I have a good lead on solving the Kryptos sculpture at CIA HQ, but I'm being prevented from following it because of bad weather on the East coast.

For a quick summary: most of the encrypted text on the CIA's Kryptos sculpture has been solved, except for 97 or 98 characters down at the bottom, which have withstood extensive cryptanalysis for over 10 years.

The tack that I've been taking on cracking it, is to research the heck out of the sculptor, Jim Sanborn. I've learned that he's got some other sculptures out there that also have codes on them, such as the Cyrillic Projector at the University of North Carolina (which has also withstood cracking for many years).

More recently, I've discovered that Sanborn has another crypto-sculpture called "Antipodes", which is at the Hirshhorn Museum in DC. From the few pictures I've seen of it, it seems to have every single character that's on the Cyrillic Projector, *and* every character that's on the CIA's Kryptos sculpture, *and* an additional 20% of encrypted text down at the bottom which is on none of Sanborn's other sculptures (that I know of).

So my current theory, is that perhaps the reason that the bottom of Kryptos hasn't been cracked, is because it's an incomplete fragment -- only the top part of a larger code, and that the intent was that some footwork and intelligence-gathering was required to obtain the full text. This would also tie in to the "whirlpool" fountain at the base of Kryptos, which may have "sucked away" the rest of the code.

I've spent the last month trying to work with museum curators, Sanborn's agent and primary galleries, and others, trying to get pictures or a transcript of Antipodes. They have all refused though, citing either lack of time, or concerns about intellectual property issues. About a week ago, I found someone in the DC area who *is* willing to go take pictures of the thing, but every single day they've attempted to visit the sculpture since then, it's been RAINING, and since the sculpture is in a semi-outdoor area, this prevented the picture-taking.

So, as soon as the weather actually clears, the pictures will (hopefully) be taken, I'll make a transcript, and we may get this thing cracked. But so far, the weather reports don't look good. Gah, the suspense is killing me . . .

More information on the above:
Kryptos: http://www.elonka.com/kryptos
Sanborn: http://www.elonka.com/kryptos/sanborn.html
Cyrillic Projector: http://www.elonka.com/kryptos/cyrillic.html
(tiny) pic of Antipodes: http://hirshhorn.si.edu/images/collection/img_low/98.22.jpg

Rain Rain Go Away!

Impressively thorough description of the different types of transposition techniques that can be used in basic cryptography.

Transposition Systems

Bar-graph showing the relative frequency of Cyrillic characters in the Russian language. For example, when dealing with English, the most frequently-used letter is "E". In Russian, it's "O".

Russian Frequency Analysis

] If you are on a PC running Internet Explorer, you can see
] the hidden pictures.
]
] Just highlight the pictures with your mouse or hit CTRL a
] (performs a "select all").
]
] Normally, that just makes an image look tinted, but these
] images are different.

Interesting and very easy-to-demonstrate method of hiding one image in another!

Hidden Images with Ctrl-A

Nice collection of puzzles to test someone's cryptanalysis mettle. You can get points and post your name on a high-score list, too.

Cryptanalysis Puzzles

] The codebreakers of Bletchley Park not only broke into
] the secrets of the German Enigma machine, but also
] succeeded in cracking the main Russian machine ciphers.

Interesting mention of one of the non-Enigma ciphers from WWII.

WWII Code team cracked Soviet's ciphers

] Le chiffrement dans l'histoire. De 4 000 ans à nos jours,
] du Carré de Vignére à la PGP

Translation: Cryptography in history, from 4000 years ago until today, from Vigenere's square to PGP.

Even though it's in French, I'm linking to this site because they have a nice example of an "auto-key" table, which is another system created by Vigenere (and may help with cracking Kryptos...)

Vigenere Auto-Key System (in French)

(from http://www.memestreams.net/thread/bid7273/ )

] Looks like if I want an online double-key Vigenere decoder,
] I'm going to have to write one... Stay tuned.

Okay, I wrote a Vigenere table-builder (in Flash MX Actionscript) that'll handle English and Cyrillic alphabets. I also included the keys needed to build the tables that appear on the Kryptos and Cyrillic Projector sculptures, along with the keys to solve parts 1 and 2 of the Kryptos code.

The utility *doesn't* do automatic encoding/decoding (yet), but will eventually. In the meantime, it's useful (IMHO) as a timesaver to build the tables, or a teaching device to understand how the tables are put together.

Vigenere Table Builder

] Monday - June 23 - 2003 - TIME Magazine, March 18, 1991.
] "Secrecy at CIA headquarters extends all the way to
] the courtyard. Kryptos, a granite-and-copper sculpture by
] Washington artist Jim Sanborn, was quietly installed last
] November near a new building on the agency's
] grounds. Taxpayers financed the $250,000 work, but that
] does not guarantee public access. Sanborn's
] sculpture features a 2,000-character encoded message that
] is believed to have been penned by a well-known writer
] whose name has not been disclosed. Besides the artist and
] the author, only CIA director William Webster knows what
] the top-secret phrase says." True no longer! 3 of 4
] parts solved. Visit The First Lady of Online Games for
] more.

Game Designer God Cliff Johnson blogged me! (I'm walking on cloud 9)

Cliff Johnson's Blog on Kryptos