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The
Cipher Challenge
Leader
Board |
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The Code
Book is
a history of cryptography (the science of secret codes),
from Ancient Egypt to the 21st century. I
described the age-old battle between codemakers and
codebreakers, a struggle that has resulted in a series
of brilliant scientific breakthroughs. I also recounted
how cryptography has had a dramatic impact on history,
how broken codes have caused the deaths of monarchs, and
how they have determined the outcomes of battles and the
fates of nations.
At
the end of The Code Book, I included The
Cipher Challenge, ten separate messages encrypted
using a series of different codes and ciphers, some
ancient, some modern. Each of the ten messages contained
a code word, and the first person to crack all ten
stages and send in all ten code words would win a prize
of £10,000. More details of The Cipher
Challenge are available on this
site
This
web page tracks the progress of The Cipher
Challenge. By checking the leader board,
competitors could see who was the first person to crack
each stage and gauge the strength of their rivals.
Because
all ten stages had not been solved by 1
October 2000,
then whoever was at the top of the leader board won a
prize of £1,000. This went to Jim Gillogly and John
Palagyi.
The
main £10,000 prize went to a team of Swedes who appeared
from nowehere, hence they were dubbed the stealth
Swedes.
Their
story is told elsewhere on this site, so you can
read in detail how they cracked each
stage. |
