Famous cryptographers’ tombstone cryptogram decrypted
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Famous cryptographers’ tombstone cryptogram decrypted
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Re: Famous cryptographers’ tombstone cryptogram decrypted
#2My nit here would be that these things aren't "ciphers" so much as they are "puzzles".
Re: Famous cryptographers’ tombstone cryptogram decrypted
#3not loading for me, but interested in reading!
Re: Famous cryptographers’ tombstone cryptogram decrypted
#4Awww, that's lovely.
Geocaching tends to use bacon cyphers extensively, as they are very useful for hiding messages in plain sight.
Re: Famous cryptographers’ tombstone cryptogram decrypted
#5My nit here would be that these things aren't "ciphers" so much as they are "puzzles".
How do you get there? You have a message text and you have a cipher text and you have an algorithm to go from one to the other. Seems like a cipher to me.
Re: Famous cryptographers’ tombstone cryptogram decrypted
#6also, a book just came out about Elizebeth Friedman and how a lot of her contributions to cryptology and the birth of sigint in general have been erased from histroy: https://www.amazon.com/Woman-Who-Smashed-Codes-Outwitted-ebo...
it's supposed to be very good, but I just started it last night so don't have much of an opinion yet.
Re: Famous cryptographers’ tombstone cryptogram decrypted
#7My nit here would be that these things aren't "ciphers" so much as they are "puzzles".
How do you get there? You have a message text and you have a cipher text and you have an algorithm to go from one to the other. Seems like a cipher to me.
It's splitting hairs to make a distinction, but a cipher has an intended recipient and potential eavesdroppers, whereas a puzzle has no known recipient other than the potential eavesdroppers.
A good cipher has to be readable by the intended recipient, and not by eavesdroppers, whereas a good puzzle cannot be impossible to crack.
In that sense, DRM is a sort of anti-puzzle, as the intended recipients are treated as the eavesdroppers, instead of the other way around.
Re: Famous cryptographers’ tombstone cryptogram decrypted
#8Earlier quoted context omitted.
How do you get there? You have a message text and you have a cipher text and you have an algorithm to go from one to the other. Seems like a cipher to me.
It's splitting hairs to make a distinction, but a cipher has an intended recipient and potential eavesdroppers, whereas a puzzle has no known recipient other than the potential eavesdroppers. A good cipher has to be readable by the intended recipient, and not by eavesdroppers, whereas a good puzzle cannot be impossible to crack. In that sense, DRM is a sort of anti-puzzle, as the intended recipients are treated as th…
Okay.
I would expect that the message was sent by Willaim after he died to people who knew him. A sort of inside joke, that people like me, seeing his tombstone would completely miss.
That said, I could see one making the case that it is steganography.
I don't think 'good' and 'bad' really come into play, a caesar cipher is still a caesar cipher even if it is pretty easy to crack. But when you see it, it doesn't look like something else.
Re: Famous cryptographers’ tombstone cryptogram decrypted
#9not loading for me, but interested in reading!
I was able to get to it just now.
Interesting and good read. Thank you.
Re: Famous cryptographers’ tombstone cryptogram decrypted
#10Earlier quoted context omitted.
How do you get there? You have a message text and you have a cipher text and you have an algorithm to go from one to the other. Seems like a cipher to me.
It's splitting hairs to make a distinction, but a cipher has an intended recipient and potential eavesdroppers, whereas a puzzle has no known recipient other than the potential eavesdroppers. A good cipher has to be readable by the intended recipient, and not by eavesdroppers, whereas a good puzzle cannot be impossible to crack. In that sense, DRM is a sort of anti-puzzle, as the intended recipients are treated as th…
> whereas a good puzzle cannot be impossible to crack.
This is a very important distinction. It would be no fun if the cipher on a given cryptographer's tombstone were created with a one-time pad.