National Cipher Challenge

A beginner’s guide to codes and ciphers

Part 2, frequency analysis
 How can you break a cipher when you can’t
see the words?
ACMBW VQCAB PMJQW OZIXP MZWNB PMKIM AIZAL MAKZQ
JMARC TQCAK IMAIZ ACAMW NIKQX PMZQV PQATM BBMZA
BWBPM WZIBW ZKQKM ZWEQB PEPWU PMEIA XTIVV QVOIV
LXTWB BQVOQ VBPML GQVOL IGAWN BPMZW UIVZM XCJTQ
KQNPM KIMAI ZPILI VGBPQ VOKWV NQLMV BQITB WAIGP
MEZWB MQBQV KQXPM ZBPIB QAJGA WKPIV OQVOB PMWZL
MZWNB PMTMB BMZAW NBPMI TXPIJ MBBPI BVWBI EWZLK
WCTLJ MUILM WCBQN IVGWV MEQAP MABWL MKQXP MZBPM
AMIVL OMBIB BPMQZ UMIVQ VOPMU CABAC JABQB CBMBP
MNWCZ BPTMB BMZWN BPMIT XPIJM BVIUM TGLNW ZIIVL
AWEQB PBPMW BPMZA QVWBP MZEWZ LAKIM AIZCA MLITM
BBMZJ GTMBB MZBZI VATIB QWVBW MVKZG XBPQA UMAAI
OMA
Any fool knows that to defeat Caesar you use
“brute force”

Et tu, Brutus?
 If you have enough

time/money/people/computers

you can try ALL the ciphers.

For people this is called team work. For

computers it is called parallel processing.
It would take a long time to do this on your
own, but with team work you can speed it up
Large teams,
working
together at
Bletchley Park
shortened the
war by at least
two years.
 A much smarter way to do it, is to look for
patterns
ACMBW VQCAB PMJQW OZIXP MZWNB PMKIM AIZAL MAKZQ
JMARC TQCAK IMAIZ ACAMW NIKQX PMZQV PQATM BBMZA
BWBPM WZIBW ZKQKM ZWEQB PEPWU PMEIA XTIVV QVOIV
LXTWB BQVOQ VBPML GQVOL IGAWN BPMZW UIVZM XCJTQ
KQNPM KIMAI ZPILI VGBPQ VOKWV NQLMV BQITB WAIGP
MEZWB MQBQV KQXPM ZBPIB QAJGA WKPIV OQVOB PMWZL
MZWNB PMTMB BMZAW NBPMI TXPIJ MBBPI BVWBI EWZLK
WCTLJ MUILM WCBQN IVGWV MEQAP MABWL MKQXP MZBPM
AMIVL OMBIB BPMQZ UMIVQ VOPMU CABAC JABQB CBMBP
MNWCZ BPTMB BMZWN BPMIT XPIJM BVIUM TGLNW ZIIVL
AWEQB PBPMW BPMZA QVWBP MZEWZ LAKIM AIZCA MLITM
BBMZJ GTMBB MZBZI VATIB QWVBW MVKZG XBPQA UMAAI
OMA
Lining up the cipher wheel so that T
matches with B we see H matching
with P and E with M. A matches to I
so we guess that the cipher we need
is a shift by 8.

(We need to be careful to match the

plain text on the outer ring with the
ciphertext on the inner ring.)

You can now use the cipher wheel

to decrypt the rest of the message.
ACMBW VQCAB PMJQW OZIXP MZWNB PMKIM AIZAL MAKZQ
JMARC TQCAK IMAIZ ACAMW NIKQX PMZQV PQATM BBMZA
BWBPM WZIBW ZKQKM ZWEQB PEPWU PMEIA XTIVV QVOIV
LXTWB BQVOQ VBPML GQVOL IGAWN BPMZW UIVZM XCJTQ
KQNPM KIMAI ZPILI VGBPQ VOKWV NQLMV BQITB WAIGP MEZWB
MQBQV KQXPM ZBPIB QAJGA WKPIV OQVOB PMWZL MZWNB
PMTMB BMZAW NBPMI TXPIJ MBBPI BVWBI EWZLK WCTLJ MUILM
WCBQN IVGWV MEQAP MABWL MKQXP MZBPM AMIVL OMBIB
BPMQZ UMIVQ VOPMU CABAC JABQB CBMBP MNWCZ BPTMB
BMZWN BPMIT XPIJM BVIUM TGLNW ZIIVL AWEQB PBPMW BPMZA
QVWBP MZEWZ LAKIM AIZCA MLITM BBMZJ GTMBB MZBZI VATIB
QWVBW MVKZG XBPQA UMAAI OMA
ACMBW VQCAB PMJQW OZIXP MZWNB PMKIM AIZAL MAKZQ
JMARC TQCAK IMAIZ ACAMW NIKQX PMZQV PQATM BBMZA
BWBPM WZIBW ZKQKM ZWEQB PEPWU PMEIA XTIVV QVOIV
LXTWB BQVOQ VBPML GQVOL IGAWN BPMZW UIVZM XCJTQ
KQNPM KIMAI ZPILI VGBPQ VOKWV NQLMV BQITB WAIGP MEZWB
MQBQV KQXPM ZBPIB QAJGA WKPIV OQVOB PMWZL MZWNB
PMTMB BMZAW NBPMI TXPIJ MBBPI BVWBI EWZLK WCTLJ MUILM
WCBQN IVGWV MEQAP MABWL MKQXP MZBPM AMIVL OMBIB
BPMQZ UMIVQ VOPMU CABAC JABQB CBMBP MNWCZ BPTMB
BMZWN BPMIT XPIJM BVIUM TGLNW ZIIVL AWEQB PBPMW BPMZA
QVWBP MZEWZ LAKIM AIZCA MLITM BBMZJ GTMBB MZBZI VATIB
QWVBW MVKZG XBPQA UMAAI OMA
SUETO NIUST HEBIOGRAPH EROFT HECAESARSD ESCRI
BESJULIUSC AESAR SUSEOFACIP HERIN HISLETTERS TOTHE
ORATORCICE ROWIT HWHOMHEWAS PLANN INGANDPLOT TINGI
NTHEDYINGD AYSOF THEROMANRE PUBLI CIFHECAESA RHADA
NYTHINGCON FIDEN TIALTOSAYH EWROT EITINCIPHE RTHAT
ISBYSOCHAN GINGT HEORDEROFT HELET TERSOFTHEA LPHAB
ETTHATNOTA WORDC OULDBEMADE OUTIF ANYONEWISH ESTOD
ECIPHERTHE SEAND GETATTHEIR MEANI NGHEMUSTSU BSTIT
UTETHEFOUR THLET TEROFTHEAL PHABE TNAMELYDFO RAAND
SOWITHTHEO THERS INOTHERWOR DSCAE SARUSEDALE TTERB
YLETTERTRA NSLAT IONTOENCRY PTHIS MESSA GES
SUETONIUS THE BIOGRAPHER OF THE CAESARS DESCRIBES
JULIUS CAESAR’S USE OF A CIPHER IN HIS LETTERS TO THE
ORATOR CICERO WITH WHOM HE WAS PLANNING AND PLOTTING
IN THE DYING DAYS OF THE ROMAN REPUBLIC. IF HE, CAESAR
HAD ANYTHING CONFIDENTIAL TO SAY HE WROTE IT IN CIPHER,
THAT IS, BY SO CHANGING THE ORDER OF THE LETTERS OF THE
ALPHABET THAT NOT A WORD COULD BE MADE OUT. IF ANYONE
WISHES TO DECIPHER THESE AND GET AT THEIR MEANING HE
MUST SUBSTITUTE THE FOURTH LETTER OF THE ALPHABET
NAMELY D FOR A AND SO WITH THE OTHERS. IN OTHER WORDS
CAESAR USED A LETTER BY LETTER TRANSLATION TO ENCRYPT
HIS MESSAGES.
The Caesar shift cipher has a fundamental
flaw …..

… we only need to know one letter to decide

which Caesar shift cipher has been used.
The cipher has only 26 different keys, which makes
it easy to break by frequency analysis (the smart
way) or by brute force.

If we want to beat the hackers then we need some

stronger ciphers with more keys, but that is
another lesson.

Before that we should probably finish analysing

this one.
ACMBW VQCAB PMJQW OZIXP MZWNB PMKIM AIZAL MAKZQ
JMARC TQCAK IMAIZ ACAMW NIKQX PMZQV PQATM BBMZA
BWBPM WZIBW ZKQKM ZWEQB PEPWU PMEIA XTIVV QVOIV
LXTWB BQVOQ VBPML GQVOL IGAWN BPMZW UIVZM XCJTQ
KQNPM KIMAI ZPILI VGBPQ VOKWV NQLMV BQITB WAIGP MEZWB
MQBQV KQXPM ZBPIB QAJGA WKPIV OQVOB PMWZL MZWNB
PMTMB BMZAW NBPMI TXPIJ MBBPI BVWBI EWZLK WCTLJ MUILM
WCBQN IVGWV MEQAP MABWL MKQXP MZBPM AMIVL OMBIB
BPMQZ UMIVQ VOPMU CABAC JABQB CBMBP MNWCZ BPTMB
BMZWN BPMIT XPIJM BVIUM TGLNW ZIIVL AWEQB PBPMW BPMZA
QVWBP MZEWZ LAKIM AIZCA MLITM BBMZJ GTMBB MZBZI VATIB
QWVBW MVKZG XBPQA UMAAI OMA
A B C D E F G H I J K L M
35 57 13 8 9 40 9 15 16 62
N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
11 10 37 33 1 15 7 29 34 10 32