It has been about a month since I posted a cipher puzzle after reading an article about the Kryptos exhibit at the CIA headquarters.  The solution is posted below, looking back at the answer the puzzle was actually quite difficult to anyone except people who study cryptology.  The major hints in the post was the reference to the Kryptos exhibit and the accompanying Wikipedia page.  This page talked about the basic ciphers and translations used on the panels which have been solved already.  I used two of the basic ciphers. (more…)

I recently flipped through a recent edition of Wired magazine which had a focus of puzzles and riddles.  The sidebars and filler pages had special sudokus, magic tricks and other word puzzles.  I am sure the main article with JJ Abrams had something to do with it.  It’s too bad I didn’t pick up any hints or clues about the Season 5 Finale of Lost, it was an interesting article but that’s another story.

There was another article that I also found very interesting, it talked about the Kryptos artwork installation at the Central Intelligence Agency.  As a quick background, the CIA commissioned an outdoor artwork installation for the New Headquarters Building (NHB).  The Kryptos, as it was named, was dedicated on November 3, 1990.  The two part sculpture is located at the main entrance to the NHB.  The main structure has four panels of ciphered text.

The mystery of the Kryptos puzzles is very fascinating.  The artist, James Sanborn, has stated that he thought all four panels of text would be solved within 7 years.  It has now been almost 20 years and only three out of the four panels have been solved.  To further complicate the mystery, the piece actually contains a riddle within a riddle.  Only after the fourth panel is deciphered can people then attempt to solve the main riddle using the plaintext of the four panels.

In the spirit of these ciphers and puzzles, I created one of my own.  Below is the name and address of a place I am going this summer for vacation.  Good luck, let me know if you figure it out.

E887p OhyRg bnEgv rNd80 NeA
ZJbgR y9Fhe IpbvZ aenDr rUM

The four panels of the Kryptos art installation