Bitcoin

After reading about Bitcoin, I was absolutely amazed.  What I found most interesting was how secretive it is.  The fact that the creator of Bitcoin is not known amazes me.  It is such a well designed program that many people say it is impossible to hack.  It also works.  People are actually using it to trade items and make purchases.  I think it will grow over the coming years and become fairly important.  I want to try using it.  Who knows, maybe I can make some money.

M-94 and Jefferson Wheel Cipher

I researched the United States Army M-94 cipher device for my final project and one thing really stood out to me.  The device was widely used during the years 1921 to 1942 but in fact, the device was actually invented over a hundred years before.  Thomas Jefferson actually invented the device in 1795 but it wasn't used until 1921.  I find it amazing that Jefferson was able to invent the device.  It just shows how much of a genius he really was. He created something that was very far ahead of his time.

PSN hacked

A few months ago, Sony's online video game network, PSN, was hacked.  An unauthorized person was able to break into the PlayStation Network and steal valuable information.  Sony admitted that credit card numbers from the over 70 million users might have been stolen.  The hacker was also able to steal names, birth dates, passwords, and logins.   Luckily however, the hacker was unable to find the security codes from the credit cards so nobody lost anything serious.  This was a scary moment for online gamers around the world.

Visual Cryptography Creator

Last week, I posted about visual cryptography.  Check out this website I found: http://www.leemon.com/crypto/VisualCrypto.html.

It is a really cool way to see visual cryptology.  Just follow the directions on the page and you will have a very cool message written with this unique style of cryptography.  I don't know what it is, but visual cryptography is very interesting to me.

Visual Cryptography

Check out this link. http://users.telenet.be/d.rijmenants/en/visualcrypto.htm

This is a cool type of cryptography called visual cryptography.  It is unique because it does not require the use of computers to decrypt.  It can all be decrypted with the human eye.  It was created in 1994 by Moni Naor and Adi Shamir.  Can you think of any good application of this kind of cryptography?

ASCII Art

I found this really interesting type of art on the internet called ASCII Art.  It is basically a graphic design technique that uses 95 characters from the ASCII code.  You have probably seen it before but probably didn't realize it used ASCII characters.  Check out the following example of Dwight Schrute from the office.

Passwords

We have all created passwords for various things at some point in our lives.  Most of the time, passwords are used to protect ourselves on the internet and on computers.  When I go to create a password, I try to make it complex and confusing. This way, nobody will be able to hack into my account or into my computer.  This is a lot like writing a code.  You don't want to use a simple code like a single substitution.  It is just too easy to decrypt.  Instead, it is always a good idea to use a more advanced type of code. Always try to use numbers and capital letters in your passwords.  It make them a lot more difficult to guess.

The Wire

The Wire is my favorite TV show of all time.  Each season of The Wire focuses on a different facet of the city of Baltimore.  In season 4, cryptography is used.  Drug kingpin Marlo Stanfield develops a special type of code to communicate with other people in his gang.  He and his men take photographs of clocks and send them via picture message.  The number at which the hour and minute hands point to represents a location using coordinates.  The Baltimore police department works extremely hard to break the code.  They are given permission to use a wiretap and after weeks and weeks of hard work, the code is broken.  As a result, Stanfield is convicted and sentenced to a a lot of time in prison.

The Maya Code

I was absolutely amazed at the movie we watched last class.  It is hard to believe people were able to crack the Mayan code.  Hieroglyphics are such an interesting language.  The amount of symbols and different variations of symbols is mind-boggling.  This is what made the Maya code so difficult to crack.  Unlike english, spanish, italian, etc., the Maya language consists hundreds of symbols, as opposed to 26 letters.  It took over 100 years to break the Maya code, proving that it was an extremely unique and confusing language.  What amazed me most was the fact that Spanish conquistadors forced the Mayans to stop writing with hieroglyphs. Everything that the Mayans created was lost for hundreds of years.

Library Books

As I was sitting in the library, I found myself staring at the thousands of books available.  That got me thinking about the organization system used to store books on the shelves. It is most commonly referred to as the Dewey Decimal Classification System.  It can be thought of as a very simple type of code.  Each number, or set of numbers, represents a specific book.  The number also reveals the location of the book.  The Dewey Decimal System is a great way to classify books because it is simple and easy to use.

Navajo Codebreakers

I was amazed at the story of the Navajo code breakers of WWII.  I had never heard anything about their story, which I found a little strange.  Their skills and ability to communicate using an unbreakable code were extremely important during the war.  What I found really interesting was that the code was never broken.  It was such a brilliant idea to use the Navajo language.  None of the enemies had any understanding of Navajo words so the code was unbreakable.  This is an amazing piece of history that I wish I knew more about.

Rosetta Stone

The Rosetta Stone is an extremely important piece of history.  Without it, we would have very little understanding of hieroglyphics.  This document contains writings in three different languages: Greek, Demotic, and Hieroglyphs.  It helped unlock the secrets of Egyptian hieroglyphs.  A man named Jean-Francois Champollion was the first man to completely break the code.  He spent most of his life studying the Rosetta Stone and working to unlock it's secrets.  In 1822, Champollion solved the code.  He was so surprised by his efforts that he fainted and was hospitalized for five days.  The decryption of the Rosetta Stone was one of the most important moments in history and it has revealed so many secrets about the ancient Egyptians.  Without cryptanalysis, this would have never happened.

James May and Autocar

James May is one of three hosts of BBC's hit TV show Top Gear.  He is an established automotive journalist, having written for The Engineer and Autocar magazines. In 1992, however, May was fired from his position at Autocar.  In one issue of the magazine, each spread featured four reviews and each review started with a large red letter.  Take a look at a picture of the magazine.  Each large red letter is part of a phrase hidden within the magazine.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/6/6b/JamesMayAutocar.jpg

The hidden message is a simple type of cryptography.  Try and read what it says!

The Mentalist

My favorite TV show is The Mentalist.  For those of you who have not seen it, here is a short summary: "The Mentalist follows Patrick Jane, an independent consultant for the California Bureau of Investigation (CBI) based in Sacramento, California. Although not an officer of the law of any sort, he uses skills from his former career as a successful psychic medium to help a team of CBI agents solve various crimes, with the hope of one day bringing Red John, the murderer of his wife, Angela, and daughter, Charlotte, to justice"(Wikipedia). The show is interesting because some of the episodes involve cryptology.  Jane sometimes receives notes and letters that contain a secret meaning.  He always manages to solve the codes because he is basically a genius.  I hope you all get a chance to watch The Mentalist some time.  Thursdays at 10pm on CBS.  Isn't it amazing how much cryptography is in the media and entertainment industries!

Cryptography in Italy

I am currently taking Italian as my language.  We all know that Italians like to speak with their hands.  Although the crazy waving of the hands may seem over the top, many arm motions and hand symbols have special meanings in Italy.  The first, obvious example is the rubbing of the belly: to be hungry.  But there are dozens of other symbols that Italians use to share their ideas.  For example, if you point your index finger on your cheek and twist it around, you are telling somebody that what you just ate was delicious. In addition, if you pinch your index finger and thumb together on both hands you are indicating that something is perfect.  Finally, if you hold out your hand with the palm facing up and move your hand up and down, you are basically saying "How Annoying!" Many people from other cultures do not know the meaning of the Italian hand gestures.  There are many more examples but I just wanted to share a few. I like to think that Italians use their own form of cryptography to communicate in silence.

Fun games

I found a lot of fun and interesting cryptology-related games on the internet and I thought I'd share them with you all.

The first site is http://www.mindfun.com/crypto/.  Just click 'Load Puzzle' and you will be given a simple monoalphabetic substitution cipher to solve.  Some of them are quite easy if you use frequency analysis.

http://enchantedmind.com/puzzles/crypto/cryptography.html.  This is very similar to the first site but instead, this has a timer.  You also have the option to receive hints.

http://www.nsa.gov/kids/home.shtml.  This is a kid-oriented website created by the NSA. It features many games and puzzles in an interactive game zone.

http://www.amazon.com/Brain-Boosting-Cryptology-Puzzles-Sarah-Wells/dp/1902813545. This is only a link to a book.  This book is a collection of "Brain Boosting Cryptology Puzzles," much like the title suggests.

If you have any free time you should check these out.  Some of them are really fun!

Smart Cards

This is a smart card.  It contains a microchip that has the ability to compute cryptographic algorithms.  An enlarged photo of the chip is seen below the card.  Most of these chips use algorithms called RSA or Triple DES.  These cards are beneficial because they provide much more security than other cards.  They also serve purposes other than being used to buy things.  They can help access personal information securely.  I find it cool that such a small chip has the power to solve such algorithms.

The Poznan Monument

The photograph above shows the Poznan Monument in Poland.  The monument is dedicated to the Polish cryptanalysts who broke the German code during World War II.  The Germans were using enigma machines to encrypt their messages.  The Polish Cypher Bureau hired three young, intelligent mathematics graduates from Poznan University.  Their names were Marian Rejewski, Jerzy Różycki and Henryk Zygalski.  They worked hard for seven years and on July 25, 1939, they shared their discovery with the French and British.  Historians believe the war in Europe ended two years earlier than it could have because of these findings.  I think it is amazing that people can solve the secret to such an intricate device.  

DVD Encryption

DVD discs have a special encryption on them that protects against people making copies and removing the data from the disc.  This encryption is meant to be secure and and strong, but in reality, the code is very weak.  DVD encryption is a great example of how the code breakers have beaten the code makers.  It is extremely easy to remove the encryption from a DVD disc and access the files within.  There is a program available for download on the internet called "DVD Decrypter."  Basically, it is a program that decrypts a copy protected DVD and allows somebody to make copies or transfer the data stored on the disc.  In the U.S., it is illegal to make copies of a DVD.  It amazes me that a program like this is so easy to access and use.  Should the U.S. government do something about this?  Thousands of people around the country use this software to make illegal copies.  It is just too easy.  Code makers should try and create a better code for DVD's.  It is unfair to the people who work hard to create movies and shows.

Cryptology in Sports

Cryptology is used in thousands of different ways, but one of the most intriguing applications is in sports.  As I was looking through the library databases for journals about cryptology, I stumbled upon an article called "Cryptology in Baseball."  It got me thinking that cryptology is used all the time in sports.  At first, you may not notice cryptology being used in sports, but truth is, almost every team in the world uses cryptology.  Let's take baseball for example.  Have you ever seen the coach making signs to the players on the field?  This is cryptology.  There is a secret code that each player on the team knows.  For example, if Buck Showalter, manager of the Orioles, touches his left ear, it could mean that Adam Jones, the player on first base, should steal second base.  Only the players on the Orioles would know the meaning of Showalter's code.  Also, there are other aspects of cryptology seen in baseball.  Nulls, or symbols that appear in a code but have no meaning are used very often.  When the manager gives his code, he often throws in other random signs to try and confuse the other team and prevent them from stealing the code.

Other sports use cryptology as well.  Football teams have a code used to call plays.  Basketball players often hold up a certain amount of fingers to initiate a certain play or formation.  These are only a few examples.  Next time you watch a sporting event, try to pick up on some of the codes being used. Feel free to leave a comment describing where you have seen cryptology being used in sports. 

The Beale Ciphers

After reading chapter 2 of The Code Book, by Simon Singh, I became interested in the Beale ciphers and treasure.  I couldn't decide whether or not it was a hoax or a real thing.  I thought, why would anyone go through the trouble of writing this intense cipher if it was never to be used?  At first I thought it was real, but I soon changed my mind.  The Beale ciphers consist of three entire pages of numbers.  One of these pages has been solved. This solved message contains information about buried treasure.  According to Beale, there is a large amount of gold, silver, and jewels buried in the ground somewhere in Bedford County, VA.  Later, the message goes on to say that the exact location of the treasure is written in the first message and the intended receivers' of the treasure are written in the third message. Nobody could crack the code.

That was in 1821. It is now 2011.  190 years and the Beale ciphers remain unsolved.  I truly believe it is a hoax.  Even modern super-computers can't decipher the Beale papers.  I think Thomas Jefferson Beale wanted to pull a huge prank on everybody in the world.  Thousands of people attempt to decipher the Beale papers but are always unsuccessful.  People even travel to Bedford County to search for the hidden treasure but nobody has ever found it.  There is just no way.

Here is a link to a site claiming they have found the Beale treasure:

http://bealesolved.tripod.com/

Do you think they found the real Beale treasure?  Post a comment.

Alberti Cipher Disk

During the 1460's, a man named Leon Battista Alberti discovered a new, better way of encrypting messages.  Older ciphers only used one cipher alphabet, which made it extremely easy to break the code.  All one would have to do is use simple frequency analysis.  Having more than one cipher alphabet makes it  much more difficult to decrypt the code.  The Alberti cipher disk is an instrument that can be used to encrypt and decrypt polyalphabetic ciphers.  It consists of two rings of letters that can be rotated and matched up to make different cipher alphabets.  The sender and receiver must agree upon an index letter.  This letter is basically the starting point of the entire cipher. Let's say the index is 'A' and the first letter in the cipher text is a 'g'.  The person who is trying to decrypt the message must line up the g of the inside ring to the A on the outside.  This sets up the disk for the encryption of the remainder of the message.  If the cipher text letter ever ends up matching to a number on the ring, the person decrypting the message must rotate the disks so that the letter that matched up with the number now matches to the original index letter.  Try to solve this message.  It is a quote from HBO's, The Wire.

Index: T

Ciphertext: hkxkyvshcch_textnocmq

(the underscore is a letter that is not on the cipher disk)