Post by Corey on Sept 27, 2013 12:38:55 GMT -5
Good Afternoon Operatives!
Many people are curious as to what the process was to discover and decipher the cryptogram that was given to us on 9/25. Here's a simple breakdown of how we solved this!
Many thanks goes out to Mystique Phreeq, Thomas Brannan, Spirit Phoenix, Sean Murphy, Corey Salyer, Brent Terrien, Ryan Alexander, and Niki D Vepertilio for collaborating together so well to get this solved!
After reading the email that was sent out on 9/25 (pictured below) it became very clear that the cryptogram that was inside the email tied back to Da Vinci. The email went on to explain that Da Vinci had learned a type on encryption while in Florence. After a bit of research, it became obvious that Leon Battista Alberti had the closest ties to Florence out of the 18 cryptographers we had previously learned about. The Alberti Cipher seemed to carry the same pattern as our cryptogram by being broken up into 'words' of 5 letters each. So we knew this had to be the right one!
We quickly discovered that an Alberti Decipher existed here:
www.cryptool-online.org/index.php?option=com_cto&view=tool&Itemid=151&lang=en
After many hours of agonizing brute force, we were nudged by Lee Balung explaining that "Assessments have values that are key to your success." We had received 4 different numbers prior to this from LT during the time of the Cryptographer Exercise which were 5, 9, 11, and 19. Considering that the Alberti cipher uses 4 different numbers to encrypt it's messages, we now knew at this point that this was for sure the cipher we needed to use!
However, on the crypto tools website, it automatically places the words TEST and CODE in place for possible keywords. In normal fashion, we assumed that those words needed to either be omitted or replaced with further keywords. But after a quick discussion from aforementioned CFOs with Masters in the field last night (9/26), we soon discovered that the words TEST and CODE did indeed need to stay and that only numbers were necessary for solving this.
After passing this information along to some CROs, they began plugging in different variations and combinations of 5, 9, 11, and 19 into the decipher.
After a few tries, the solution was solved by entering those numbers in these perspective areas of the decipher:
Mul1: 9
Rot1: 19
Mul2: 5
Rot2: 11
and we discovered that the solution to the cryptogram was:
COLLE CTIVE FIELD OPERA TIONS COMME NCE
Great work team!
Although we did figure it out a bit late (which ultimately led to field operations to be suspended last night), we are extremely proud that we were able to be the first to solve this and report it directly to Rick Spencer in the field! However, we couldn't have done it without working diligently as a team nor without the thing we pried ourselves on the most; collaboration. Through this, I think we were really able to show and prove that The Collaborative means business this year! We couldn't be more proud of you all! Thanks!
- TC Staff
The email:
Many people are curious as to what the process was to discover and decipher the cryptogram that was given to us on 9/25. Here's a simple breakdown of how we solved this!
Many thanks goes out to Mystique Phreeq, Thomas Brannan, Spirit Phoenix, Sean Murphy, Corey Salyer, Brent Terrien, Ryan Alexander, and Niki D Vepertilio for collaborating together so well to get this solved!
After reading the email that was sent out on 9/25 (pictured below) it became very clear that the cryptogram that was inside the email tied back to Da Vinci. The email went on to explain that Da Vinci had learned a type on encryption while in Florence. After a bit of research, it became obvious that Leon Battista Alberti had the closest ties to Florence out of the 18 cryptographers we had previously learned about. The Alberti Cipher seemed to carry the same pattern as our cryptogram by being broken up into 'words' of 5 letters each. So we knew this had to be the right one!
We quickly discovered that an Alberti Decipher existed here:
www.cryptool-online.org/index.php?option=com_cto&view=tool&Itemid=151&lang=en
After many hours of agonizing brute force, we were nudged by Lee Balung explaining that "Assessments have values that are key to your success." We had received 4 different numbers prior to this from LT during the time of the Cryptographer Exercise which were 5, 9, 11, and 19. Considering that the Alberti cipher uses 4 different numbers to encrypt it's messages, we now knew at this point that this was for sure the cipher we needed to use!
However, on the crypto tools website, it automatically places the words TEST and CODE in place for possible keywords. In normal fashion, we assumed that those words needed to either be omitted or replaced with further keywords. But after a quick discussion from aforementioned CFOs with Masters in the field last night (9/26), we soon discovered that the words TEST and CODE did indeed need to stay and that only numbers were necessary for solving this.
After passing this information along to some CROs, they began plugging in different variations and combinations of 5, 9, 11, and 19 into the decipher.
After a few tries, the solution was solved by entering those numbers in these perspective areas of the decipher:
Mul1: 9
Rot1: 19
Mul2: 5
Rot2: 11
and we discovered that the solution to the cryptogram was:
COLLE CTIVE FIELD OPERA TIONS COMME NCE
Great work team!
Although we did figure it out a bit late (which ultimately led to field operations to be suspended last night), we are extremely proud that we were able to be the first to solve this and report it directly to Rick Spencer in the field! However, we couldn't have done it without working diligently as a team nor without the thing we pried ourselves on the most; collaboration. Through this, I think we were really able to show and prove that The Collaborative means business this year! We couldn't be more proud of you all! Thanks!
- TC Staff
The email: