Breaking 19th Century Encrypted Newspaper Ads with Modern Means
Abstract:
In the 19th century, encrypted newspaper advertisements were a common method of communication. Breaking and reading these messages is a fascinating task, as they were used to transmit everything from love messages and business information to family news. Publication in a newspaper ensured that a message could be received anonymously and virtually everywhere, even by people on the go. Encryption ensured that (at least in theory) only the intended recipient could read the note. The presenters have collected hundreds of encrypted newspaper ads from the 19th century from England, France, and the United States. Some of these ads are unique, others form a series of messages, the longest of which includes over 50 advertisements published over several years. Some messages were solved quickly, some are still being solved today, and others remain unsolved.
As an example, one interesting ad series was published in the 1850s in The (London) Times targeted towards Admiral Richard Collinson during his five-year expedition around Cape Horn to Canada and Alaska. The Times, which represented the most important newspaper of its time, was available even in remote parts of the world, so no matter where Collinson was, he could pick up a copy of the newspaper, scan the ads for something that might have been a message to him, and then decrypt it to learn about his own family's events. It was a very public way of transmitting very personal information.
This talk presents the most interesting newspaper ads from the lecturers’ collection along with the background stories. In addition, some of the toughest unsolved advertisements are introduced and potential solution approaches are explained.
Both lecturers are successful book authors and experienced speakers with hundreds of presentations delivered.
Speaker Bios:
Elonka Dunin (elonka.com) is an experienced crypto expert, co-founder and co-leader of a group of cryptographers who are working hard to crack the final cipher on the famous Kryptos sculpture at CIA Headquarters. She maintains a list of the world’s most famous unsolved codes on her elonka.com site, and has written multiple books, including The Mammoth Book of Secret Codes and Cryptograms. Bestselling author Dan Brown named one of the characters in his Da Vinci Code sequel, The Lost Symbol, after her. “Nola Kaye” is an anagrammed form of “Elonka”. She is a member of the Board of Directors for the National Cryptologic Foundation, and is a lifetime member of the International Game Developers Association. With co-author Klaus Schmeh, she published the 2020 book "Codebreaking: A Practical Guide" as well as a 2021 article in the academic journal Cryptologia on hill climbing techniques, entitled, "How we set new world records in breaking Playfair ciphertexts". Also in 2021, she gave the TEDx talk, "2,000 years of ordinary secrets".
Klaus Schmeh (schmeh.org) is the most-published cryptology author in the world. He has written 15 books (in German) about the subject, as well as over 250 articles, 25 scientific papers, and 1500 blog posts. Klaus’s main fields of interest are codebreaking and the history of encryption. His blog Cipherbrain is read by crypto enthusiasts all over the world. Klaus is a popular speaker, known for his entertaining presentation style involving self-drawn cartoons and Lego models. He has lectured at hundreds of conferences, including the NSA Cryptologic History Symposium, HistoCrypt, the Charlotte International Cryptologic Symposium, H.O.P.E., and the RSA Conference in San Francisco. In his day job, Klaus works for an IT security company. With co-author Elonka Dunin, he published the 2020 book Codebreaking: A Practical Guide as well as a 2021 article in the academic journal Cryptologia:on hill climbing techniques, entitled, "How we set new world records in breaking Playfair ciphertexts".
