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Secret diplomatic message deciphered after 350 years

137 points by robin_reala

by Molitor5901

4 subcomments

I sat through a briefing last week about quantum encryption and the threat that quantum computing poses to encryption in use today. It was stressed that nation states are hoovering up encrypted data now in order to decrypt later with quantum computing. Much the same way America decrypted old soviet encrypted data. I wonder if it will take as long and if anyone will still be alive to make use of that data.

by md224

0 subcomment

> The solution was reached by using codebreaking software the team had developed along with extensive manual work, in part required because Perwich had mistakenly omitted a couple of letters in his ciphertext.
That explains how the team of 3 codebreakers got it, but what about the other codebreaker, Matthew Brown, who figured it out by himself? The article doesn't say anything about his approach. Seems impressive if he can match the effort of three cryptographers using their own custom software. I want to read more about him!

by butlike

2 subcomments

It's fascinating to me that the keywords were further encoded such that even if the message was deciphered, the strategic plans could not be acted upon.

by mdani

0 subcomment

The article mentions a code breaking software - any idea what that is? I have a coded letter that is about 250 years old, but it is written in Devanagari script so letter frequency isn't straightforward. Please do suggest any tools that can help in decoding.

by brcmthrowaway

0 subcomment

So many machninations amongst the elites even hundreds of years ago. And imagine today, with the current set of goons in power. It's amazing they've survived for so long.

by AtlasBarfed

2 subcomments