For those of you who are regular readers of my blog . . .

I have been contacted by a British book publisher, who wants me to write a book of ciphers. Not so much a book *about* ciphers, as a book *full* of hundreds of pencil and paper ciphers to solve.

Progress has been good, but my deadline is fast approaching, and I could use some help with creating some additional simple substitution ciphers, as well as testing many of the other ciphers that have already been created. If you are interested in joining in the effort, in return for getting your name in the book, please contact me at elonka@aol.com .

And for everyone else, I'll let you know when the book hits the shelves!

Elonka :)

San Francisco - A research team led by the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) recently broke the code behind tiny tracking dots that some color laser printers secretly hide in every document.
The U.S. Secret Service admitted that the tracking information is part of a deal struck with selected color laser printer manufacturers, ostensibly to identify counterfeiters. However, the nature of the private information encoded in each document was not previously known.

"We've found that the dots from at least one line of printers encode the date and time your document was printed, as well as the serial number of the printer," said EFF Staff Technologist Seth David Schoen.

Secret Service... Okay, so I can see a reasonable use for this in terms of money-counterfeiting efforts. But all the other possible uses (like being able to track the creators of political flyers and whatnot) do raise a concern.

I have to wonder now, if I make a color copy of something that I color printed, does that nullify the dots? Hmmm.

Many Color Laser Printers Embed Code in Every Page

Take each letter of the alphabet, rotate it in 3D space, and then take the resulting blob and use *it* as the letter. One way of doing a substitution cipher, I guess . . .

3D Alphabet

Jim Sanborn and The Da Vinci Code
September 23, 2005 at 12:30 pm
Since the publication of The Da Vinci Code readers and art enthusiasts have attempted to decipher the work of artist Jim Sanborn, whose Kryptos sculpture installed at CIA Headquarters was featured in the novel. Sanborn will reveal some of the secrets behind his enigmatic sculptures, in particular Antipodes, 1997, which stands in the Hirshhorn Plaza. Meet at the Information Desk.

Friday, day after tomorrow, Sanborn will be giving a talk about Kryptos, Antipodes, and The Da Vinci Code at the Hirshhorn Museum (the big round museum near the Capitol).

As yet though, I have been unable to find anyone in my crypto group who's able to attend. :/

Is there anyone within reach of this blog who's in the DC area, and could go to this talk on Friday? I'd really appreciate being able to hear a first-hand account of what Sanborn says. Even better, I'd love a recording or transcript!

Thanks,

Elonka :)

Kryptos Sculptor Speaks in DC on Friday

The symposium is presented every two years by the National Security Agency's Center for Cryptologic History (CCH). The historians of the CCH will be joined by historians from other branches of the U.S. government and from distinguished academic institutions in the U.S. and from abroad. The theme of this year's symposium will be "The Cold War and Cryptology." One entire day will be devoted to exploring VENONA, the American cryptologic effort that uncovered Soviet espionage efforts against the U.S. during World War II. Historians from NSA, the FBI, the Library of Congress, and several academic institutions will present new insights into this fascinating triumph of American cryptology, as we celebrate the 10th anniversary of the declassification of VENONA documents.

The second day of the symposium will explore a variety of topics, including how Presidents Truman and Eisenhower viewed and used signals intelligence. We will also look at a number of other espionage cases that involved cryptology, and will gain the unique perspective of "hearing from the other side" as a Dutch historian discusses the perspective of Holland on one case, using recently declassified documents from the Netherlands. The less traditional side of historical research will also be represented, with a presentation from a professional game developer and a look into the cryptologic aspects of "From Russia with Love"

My own presentation will be on the second day, October 28 2005, at 1:45 p.m.:

Elonka Dunin
Professional Game Developer
"KRYPTOS and the Cyrillic Projector Ciphers"

This year the conference will be at the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Lab. I wonder if I'll get to tour anything interesting . . .

Elonka :)

NSA 2005 Symposium on Cryptologic History

Gary Warzin Age 56, of Indianapolis, passed away Saturday, August 27th, 2005. Gary was preceded in death by his parents Charles and Anne (Valentine) Warzin of Geneva, Ohio. He is survived by his wife of 35 years, Julie; daughter Tracie, son-in law Jarrod Bunce, and two grandchildren, Jaden and Dawson of Noblesville. Gary Warzin was the founder and CEO of Audiophile Systems, Ltd. of Indianapolis, Indiana. He was a cum laude graduate of Purdue University, majoring in Industrial Management. Interests included electronics, bicycling, attempting to solve the Kryptos Code, and collecting Japanese arcade games. Gary was also a 30-year member of the International Brotherhood of Magicians. Gary served as Chair of the Audio Division of the Consumer Electronic Association. He was also on the PARA Manufacturer's Advisory Council. Friends may call at the Flanner Buchanan Funeral Center-Broad Ripple on Tuesday, August 30, 2005 from 4 p.m. until the time of the service at 5 p.m. Memorial contributions may be made to American Heart Association. www.flannerbuchanan.com

Gary and I were co-founders and moderators of the Kryptos discussion group. I just heard about his death this evening, and then immediately called his home and spoke with his daughter Tracie. Though she and her mother did not share Gary's passion for cryptography, they both recognized that it was an important part of his life -- so much so that they even mentioned Kryptos in his obituary! "Interests included electronics, bicycling, attempting to solve the Kryptos Code, and collecting Japanese arcade games."

I first met Gary face-to-face in Fall 2003, when he and I attended the NSA Crypto Symposium in DC. We also had the opportunity there to meet both Kryptos Sculptor James Sanborn, and Cryptographer Ed Scheidt.

Though I usually list Gary and myself as "co-founders" of the Kryptos Group, it was really his idea. Gary was one of the people who first wrote to me about my website back in early 2003, and it was during correspondence with him, that I was inspired to come up with my own alternative solution for Part 3 of the sculpture. Gary's hard work on the puzzle seriously impressed me, especially the way that he would take the time to write his work up into formal easy-to-read papers. I didn't agree with all of his conclusions, but he was always an inspiring and motivating force, and he will be missed.

Elonka

Gary Warzin - Obituary

The first sign that something was amiss came a few days before Christmas Eve 2003. The US department of homeland security raised the national terror alert level to "high risk". The move triggered a ripple of concern throughout the airline industry and nearly 30 flights were grounded, including long hauls between Paris and Los Angeles and subsequently London and Washington.

But in recent weeks, US officials have made a startling admission: the key intelligence that prompted the security alert was seriously flawed. CIA analysts believed they had detected hidden terrorist messages in al-Jazeera television broadcasts that identified flights and buildings as targets. In fact, what they had seen were the equivalent of faces in clouds - random patterns all too easily over-interpreted.

Steganography - Rumors of Messages in Al Jazeera Broadcasts were False Alarms

Review IS required for encryption commodities and software that:

a. Are “mass market” products with symmetric key length exceeding 64-bit algorithms
 . . .
b. Do not qualify as “mass market” and employ key lengths greater than 56-bits for symmetric algorithms, 512-bits for asymmetric algorithms and 112-bits for elliptic curve algorithms (“checklist” questions 2.a and 2.b), or which provide an open cryptographic interface as defined in Section 772.1.

Current guidelines on what kind of encryption technology requires review before export from the U.S.

U.S. Export Regulations - Encryption - 7/24/03

Depuis que l'auteur de best-sellers Dan Brown s'intéresse à elle, des centaines d'amateurs tentent de décrypter son message codé. Mais cela fait déjà quinze ans que Kryptos, sculpture érigée au QG de la CIA à Washington, résiste.

New article about Kryptos that just appeared in a French tabloid.

Liberation.fr - Da VinCIA code (& Kryptos)

. . . Elonka Dunin, who runs the most comprehensive website on Kryptos (www.elonka.com/kryptos) said recent activity has surged.

"My baseline was about 500-600 unique visitors a day. But I recently got 30,000 over a 24-hour period," said Ms Dunin, an executive at a Missouri-based internet game company, Simutronics.

The Guardian | Interest grows in solving cryptic CIA puzzle after link to Da Vinci Code