Linear A

Linear A is one of two linear scripts in Ancient Crete. These two were discovered by Arthur Evans. He also named these scripts. Linear B was deciphered in 1952 by Michael Ventris and was used to write Mycenaean Greek. Linear B values have been used in attempt to decipher Linear A but Linear A has never been fully translated. These scripts share many similar symbols but when the symbols from Linear B are used to decipher Linear A, the words are unclear. This is very confusing and is reason while many people have been unsuccessful.

Chinese Gold Bar Cipher

In 1933, seven gold bars were allegedly issued to a Chinese general in Shanghai. The gold bars appear to represent metal certificates related to a bank deposit with a U.S. Bank. The gold bars themselves have pictures, Chinese writing, some form of script writing, and cryptograms in Latin letters. It may help to resolve the dispute if someone can decipher the cryptograms on the bars. Nobody has yet put for the a theory as to their meaning. The Chinese writing has been translated, and discusses a transaction in excess of $300,000,000. There is some dispute over whether or not these gold bars are actually valid or not. Regardless, nobody has been able to completely decipher their meaning.

Tabula Recta

The tabula recta is a square table of alphabets, each row of which is made by shifting the previous one to the left. The term was invented by Johannes Trithemius. Trithemius used the tabula recta to define a polyalphabetic cipher which was equivalent to Leon Battista Alberti's cipher disk except that the alphabets are not mixed. The tabula recta is a main reason of how people were able to crack the Vigenère cipher and Blaise de Vigenère's less well-known autokey cipher. All polyalphabetic ciphers based on Caesar ciphers can be explained by the tabula recta in specific terminology.

Importance of Cryptology

Cryptology has been around since the dawn of time but has become more and more prevalent during war and the computer/internet era. I had an idea of what countries had major influences on cryptology, such as England and the United States but I was truly unaware of the vastness of cryptology. People in every major power around the world are working on cryptography. Even in smaller countries, this practice is still going on. I was stunned to read in our book the major impact that Poland had on cracking the German Enigma because I had no idea they were capable of such a feat. This leads me to question, what other countries have had cryptology programs going unnoticed? With computers, we are now able to continuously update and enhance cryptology but this does not mean that there are not others out there working just as hard as the world super powers.

Dorabella Cipher

This cipher was an enciphered letter from Edward Elgar to Miss Dora Penny. This letter contained a cipher of 87 characters and is made of an alphabet of 24 characters. These symbols range from 1-3 semi-circles that are pointed in any of eight directions. Many attempts to break this cipher have proved futile. The amount of characters would suggest that it would be a simple single substitution cipher but every attempt to break the cipher in this manner were unsuccessful. Even Miss Dora Penny was never able to decipher this letter.

Shugborough Inscription

The Shugborough inscription is a sequence of letters - O U O S V A V V, between the letters D M - carved on the 18th-century Shepherd's Monument in the grounds of Shugborough Hall in Staffordshire, England. It has never been fully explained, and has been called one of the world's top uncracked ciphertexts. These letter are found on a monument that was built in the mid-1700's. The painting contains a rustic arch and shows a woman and three shepherds. There are many theories revolving around these strange letters but have cracked the code or have evidence that support them.

Swype and T9: Common ciphers

Every time we use our cell phones to text, most of us us a cipher. Especially for those of us who use Swype or T9. In both of these forms of texting, numbers on the phone represent letters. With Swype, you simply run your fingers along the touch screen on top of where the letters are and the phone analyzes the motion you made to determine the word you were trying to spell. I still think that Swype is an insane idea because the phone has to convert a simple motion of your finger into words. Both of these methods of texting demonstrate the phones ability to convert numbers or symbols into competent words. I just never really saw these as ciphers before but they actually make sense as ciphers.

Turkish Test Cipher Conspiracy

In Turkey last year, there was a large conspiracy involving the entrance exam for the Turkish university. Apparently, there was a cipher within the exam that revealed the answers to many of the multiple choice questions. It was rumored that a select few were given the answer on how to decipher this and thus give them many of the answers. The cipher may have been an accident but it still drew much attention. This conspiracy ran all the way up to the prime minister. Imagine going into the SATs and knowing a code that would give you the right answer for all the questions.

Here is the website that explains this conspiracy in detail:
http://www.nature.com/news/2011/110531/full/474017a.html