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I was impressed by the
rapid progress that was made when I first issued the Cipher
Challenge. Within a few days of publishing The Code Book
codebreakers had deciphered the first four parts of the
10-stage Cipher Challenge. The codebreakers included a speech
therapist, a philosopher, a medical researcher and a
fifteen-year-old student, suggesting that a wide variety of
people are attempting to crack the codes.
During the last two months, however, the
leaderboard has remained unchanged, because nobody has been
able to crack the mysterious stage 5. It might seem that
decipherment has ground to a halt, but in fact I have been
informed that codebreakers have succeeded in deciphering
stages beyond stage 5. Unless these codebreakers can crack
stage 5 (and stages 1 to 4), they will not appear on the
leaderboard, but I thought that readers of The Code Book might
be interested in these breakthroughs, and so I have summarised
what has happened so far in this Cipher Challenge Update.
While codebreakers around the world,
professionals and amateurs alike, were scratching their heads
over stage 5, I was contacted by James J. Gillogly, a former
President of the American Cryptogram Association (ACA), an
organisation for amateur codebreakers. He recently hit the
headlines when he deciphered a secret message inscribed on a
sculpture in a courtyard of the CIA headquarters building in
Langley, Virginia, just outside Washington DC.
Gillogly claimed, and then proved to me,
that he had deciphered stages 1 to 4 and stages 6 to 9. In
other words, for him, only the notorious stage 5 and the final
stage 10 remain.
Although this does not change the
leaderboard, I contacted the current leaders, who then told me
of their progress. Souraya Dyer, a fifteen-year-old London
student, has cracked stage 6 and is currently attempting stage
7. Dr Roger Gunn, a medical researcher from Ealing Common, is
doing even better. Having cracked stages 1 to 4 alone, he is
now working with his brother, Dr Steve Gunn, a lecturer in
Intelligent Systems, and has cracked stages 6, 7 and 8.
Together, they are currently working on stage 9.
But what about the mysterious stage 5? The
encrypted message contains a list of numbers, and when I
created stage 5, I certainly did not think that it would prove
to be so difficult. I do not want to give away any clues, but
I will say the following: even though the encrypted message is
made of numbers, you do not need to be a mathematician to
crack it. In fact, a schoolchild is as likely as a
professional codebreaker to decipher stage 5. The encrypted
message has much in common with the infamous Beale Ciphers,
which also contain a series of numbers. To decipher the three
Beale Ciphers it is necessary to find the so-called key-texts.
One of them has been deciphered, and the key-text turned out
to be the Declaration of Independence. The key-text for the
other two ciphers is missing, and, of course, the key-text for
stage 5 of my Cipher Challenge is also a mystery.
It will be interesting so see how long it
will take to crack stage 5. It could be that people will start
working in teams. The Cipher Challenge is already being
discussed on the "sci.crypt" Usenet news group, and someone
has set up a mailing list to generate discussion. It is also
possible that somebody has already cracked stage 5, but has
not been able to crack stages 1 to 4. Such a person would not
qualify for the leaderboard, and so would not have contacted
me.
All this discussion of higher stages may
be dispiriting to challengers who are only just beginning or
to those who are having trouble with the early stages. I would
offer the following words of encouragement. Many amateur
codebreakers cracked stages 1 to 4 in a matter of days, and
these stages were designed so that any non-expert could crack
them with just a little effort and dedication. Perhaps I
should warn you that stage 3 is a little harder than stage 4.
Hence, if you get stuck with stage 3, you might want to have a
go at stage 4, and then return to stage 3 with renewed vigour.
And once you have cracked stages 1 to 4,
then you might be the person who has the insight that cracks
stage 5, at which point you would be leading the Cipher
Challenge.
Happy Cracking,
Simon Singh.
Ps. Although I was glad to be contacted by
James J. Gillogly, in general I would prefer to hear only from
codebreakers who have made a breakthrough that affects the
leaderboard. In other words, please do not send me any
decipherments unless you can decipher stage 5. Good
Luck.
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