Cracking the Code - Page 104

C2 Proficiency · Gapped Text · Ready for C2 Proficiency Student's Book, Macmillan

You are going to read an article about cryptography and code breaking. Seven paragraphs have been removed from the article. Choose from the paragraphs A–H the one which fits each gap (1–7). There is one extra paragraph which you do not need to use.

Simple as they may appear now, basic coded messages signalled a huge leap in communication forms of the past. In fact, an elementary form of cryptography was practised by Julius Caesar, who sent his generals coded messages using what is commonly known today as the Caesar cipher – a technique where, put simply, one letter in an original message was replaced by another in a fixed position, usually three letters down the alphabet. So, for example, DON'T MOVE becomes GRQW PRYH.

What inspires people to design these kinds of cryptic messages, while sometimes stemming from practicality, can in other cases be a complete mystery. One such example of this is the Voynich Manuscript, where the reasons for creating such a vast important tome in a language not readily accessible seems unfathomable.

The Dorabella Cipher, for example, written by composer Edward Elgar, is a message to a family friend, consisting simply of various squiggles oriented towards different directions. It looks unlike any other kind of text, but to this day, nobody has been able to decipher it, even the recipient herself. Some even believe it to not be a text at all, but rather a coded musical composition.

When seeking to unlock the simpler codes, frequency analysis is often considered a useful method. This involves looking for letters that appear more frequently than others. So, for example, if the original text is considered to be in English, then identifying frequent occurrences of a letter or groups of letters, such as vowels or consonant clusters, may help decode the text.

Reasons why messages might be obscured can vary widely – whether to conceal military plans from the enemy, create distractions or quite simply due to audacity, the only commonality being that the message must be hidden from those who are not the intended or worthy recipients. Within the study of Cryptography, the sender is referred to as Alice or A, the intended recipient is Bob or B, and amongst many other monikers, Eve or E is the eavesdropper.

There is still debate over the purpose of the text, but the illustrations would seemingly point to it being some sort of encyclopaedia of the natural world. Some argue that the work is not encoded at all, but rather written in a language that died out without record. One school of thought even considers the entire thing to be a hoax and that the 'writing' is simply gibberish.

But before, reader, you go searching through every cold, dark and dangerous cave in the area, as many have before you, be warned that it may all just be an elaborate ruse. After all, the texts were sold in pamphlets for a princely sum at the time, putting the veracity of the whole story in question.

Getting started couldn't be easier, with a multitude of books on the subject, ranging from titles for the beginner code breaker to more advanced works on specific cyphers, as well as a number of websites devoted to code breaking, many with accompanying brain teasers. Although, with more modern codes, having a good grounding in maths and computer sciences is imperative.

Sit on any commuter train or in any café and you are bound to spot people around you consumed by the challenge of doing a puzzle. It is a hugely popular pastime, whether in the form of a simple crossword or Sudoku puzzle, Wordle, an online strategy game, or even an escape room challenge. And yet, the most formidable of puzzles can't be found in black or white in the daily news, or behind some unassuming shopfront entrance. They are the enigmas of secret ancient texts and the keys needed to unlock them have been lost in the mists of time.

Usually, these kinds of communications require a 'cipher', essentially the blueprint to interpret the secret code, which should be known only to the original agents. However, the luxury of a cipher doesn't always exist. When trying to 'crack a code' that doesn't have any cipher, the cryptanalyst needs to gather as much information as possible from the original text, so the bigger it is the better, and then to use all the techniques in his or her arsenal to try and unlock it.

This, done by hand, can be a painstakingly slow, difficult, and sometimes, fruitless task. Firstly, this technique has to assume what language the original code was written in, as well as that the original cipher has failed to hide these common patterns. It's therefore a technique which relies on the cipher being simplistic, which, while true of some earlier forms of coded messaging, is rarely the case these days.

In retrospect, the flaws in this method of encryption are obvious. However, there are many codes of the past that do indeed require a genius to unlock their mysteries, the most famous of which is the Voynich Manuscript, a 15th century book, written in an unknown script, featuring a never-before-seen alphabet. With over 170,000 beautiful, looping letters, as well as illustrations, this manuscript is the pinnacle of puzzle solving, and remains a complete mystery to professional and amateur cryptologists alike.

People can make up their own mind about it, however, as the entire work is publicly available online for anybody to try their hand at solving. It is one of many mysterious texts now accessible to the general public and waiting to be cracked. In fact, there is a plethora of enigmatic communications from throughout history that remain shrouded in mystery, many of which have a fascinating background.

But perhaps the Beale Ciphers might be of more interest to a wider audience of puzzle enthusiasts. These three cryptic texts date back to the 1880s and apparently conceal the location of one Thomas J Beale's buried treasure in Virginia. Some parts of these texts have been solved, such as what the treasure contains and that the hiding place is 'roughly lined with stone', making it all the more compelling.

Stories such as these often create a frenzy of excitement, but, even if there is no monetary value in it for the solver, cracking any secret code pays dividends when it comes to the sense of achievement you get. After all, they were meant for only certain eyes that do not include our own – who wouldn't be interested in trying to find out their hidden meanings? This is why amateur cryptography can be such a fulfilling pursuit.

Available as a free printable PDF worksheet with an optional answer key.

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