( OT ) The secret world of code-breaking

The secret world of code-breaking
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The Independent
Published: 17 May 2007

In the age of instant global communication, the ability to encode - and 
decipher - secret messages has never been more valuable. Andy McSmith 
explains why code-breaking is flavour of the month.

Codes are as old as language. Language allows you to communicate with 
anybody; a secure code lets you pick and choose the cipient of the 
information you want to impart. From the beginnings of recorded history we 
find examples of people communicating in code, that amuse or appal us. And 
codes have lost none of their importance in the 21st century.

Tomorrow will see the release of a film based on a real-life example of a 
code being used to torment and manipulate. Zodiac is a fictionalised 
version of the story of a serial killer who taunted the California police 
with coded messages which, he claimed, would reveal his identity. Those 
sections of the messages that were decoded revealed a sick mind, but not 
the killer's identity. Perhaps they were never meant to..../snip/

....There is a film based on a novel by Robert Harris about the Enigma 
machine, a German computer which instead of substituting one alphabet for 
another, used 17,576 substitutions simultaneously. It was easy to read a 
message sent out by Enigma, if you had your own Enigma machine and an 
up-to-date codebook that told you the right settings for that day. Without 
either, the messages should have been impossible to read. Yet the 
codebreakers in Bletchley Park did it. Their success was an enormous 
contributor to the Allied victory.

Today's codemakers and codemakers use immensely more sophisticated 
methods. Enigma encryption was a piece of cake compared with 128-bit 
encryption. But today's codebreakers also have at their disposal computers 
vastly quicker and more powerful than the Bletchley boffins. The battle 
continues.

But don't worry, you don't need a super computer to crack the Independent 
code. All you need is a brain and a bit of time. 

http://news.independent.co.uk/world/science_technology/article2553932.ece


The Independent Code : Can you crack it ?

Decipher our hidden message and win £10,000
Plus spot prizes to be won each day

Published: 15 May 2007

Starting on Thursday 17 May and running until Saturday 26 May The 
Independent print edition will contain a hidden clue that could lead you 
to a £10,000 prize. No specialist code-breaking skills are require d: you 
just need ingenuity, persistence and a bit of lateral thinking....

http://news.independent.co.uk/article2548466.ece