We Love Ciphers!

Introduction

One of the highlights of 2014/2015 has been our cipher cracking team (Napier' Bones) winning the GCHQ-assessed Universally Challenged competition. Here

Our team ...

Over a period of 2-3 weeks, Charley Celice, Chrissy Morgan and Peter Aaby, supported by other students worked on cracking the ciphers, and in the end cracked more codes than any other university, beating Royal Holloway University into second and Teesside University into third. The other finalists were Plymouth, Portsmouth, Sunderland and Bristol. At the time I said:

I am so proud of our amazing students. I have seldom seen such dedication, and they have had such fun in working together to solve complex puzzles.

“We loved the challenges the other universities gave us, and built up such respect for their skills.

“If there’s one skill which is in high demand in cyber security, it is the ability to solve complex problems, and few things are more difficult than cracking the ciphers generated by others. I am sure John Napier would be happy with our work.”

The university teams had been asked to create as complicated a cipher as possible, and it was then shared with all the other teams. They were then challenged to break as many as possible before the competition ended, with the team that solved the most declared the winner.

So looking back, I feel even more proud, and if you are interested in how we have some of the finest cipher crackers around, here's our Portsmouth University cipher crack:

https://asecuritysite.com/subjects/chapter56

The great thing is that I had just finished teaching Caeser codes, Vigenere and the basics of public key, and the students just took to the cipher cracking and could make sense of the characters they were seeing ... I've seldom been so proud of my students!

For the Portsmouth University cipher, here is the starting point:

.... - - .--. -.-. --- .-.. --- -. ... .-.. .- ... .... ... .-.. .- ... .... .-. .--- -... -.. --- - ... --- -.-. -.. --- - .--. --- .-. - -.. --- - .- -.-. -.. --- - ..- -.- ... .-.. .- ... .... .--. ..- -. -.- ... .-.. .- ... .... .-. .. --. .... - .-. .. --. .... - .-. .. --. .... - .-. .. --. .... - -.. --- - --.. .. .--.

Postscript

Personally I've never lost my love for codes and in cracking them. You see the same with school children where they have a natural talent for seeing sense in scrambled characters. Take a challenge here.

Oh ... and Charley is now our new PhD student ... how good is that?

And you if want to study computer security ... come to the best place around .. we have a World-beating MSc programme in Computer Security and Digital Forensics, and you can take it remote (as we have a whole virtualised environment). More details here.

XAHIKJH ZKJEH, KQW KD GC BOKJZWFH GKGWQHF KD HIW CWMO (AD QKH KD GC XIKRW YMOWWO) XMF OWRMHWZ HK KJO TOWMH YCEWO YOMYVAQT HWMG XIK XKQ HIW JV JQALWOFAHC YABIWO YOMYVAQT YKGBWHAHAKQ. KJO FHJZWQHF XKOVWZ FK IMOZ MQZ AQHWTOMHWZ FK XWRR MF M HWMG, MQZ HIWC TKH HIW GWOAH HIMH HIWC ZWFWOLWZ. XW XWOW RJYVC WQKJTI HK BAYV JB KJO MXMOZ AQ RKQZKQ, MQZ XW MOW MRR RKKVAQT DKOXMOZ HK ZWDWQZAQT KJO YOKXQ QWNH CWMO.

DKO JF, XW MROWMZC IMLW YIMORWC FATQWZ JB DKO M BIZ (MQZ XIK XW IKBW XARR GMVW M GMFFALW AGBMYH KQ HIW XKORZ KD GMRXMOW MQMRCFAF), MQZ XW'OW VWWQ HK TWH BWHWO MQZ YIOAFHAQM. XAHI BIZ FHJZWQHF FJYI MF HIWFW, XW YMQQKH DMAR HK EWYKGW XKORZ-RWMZWOF.

Try cracking this cipher in five minutes ... here.