- Simple Progression to an Unbreakable Cipher
Craig P. Bauer · 2016
This chapter describes a simple cipher system and proceeds to patch it against attacks until the final result of a theoretically unbreakable cipher is achieved. In a previous chapter, we saw how Edgar Allan Poe challenged readers to send him monoalphabetic substitution ciphers to break. For the submission reproduced in Figure 3.1, Poe was not able to offer a solution; however, he was able to demonstrate that the sender did not follow his rules. That is, the cipher is not monoalphabetic. Poe concluded (incorrectly) that it was “a jargon of random characters, having no meaning whatsoever.”† Jumping ahead to the 1970s, Mark Lyster, an undergraduate in Brian Winkel’s cryptology class at Albion College, became curious and attempted a solution. Together, the professor and his student solved it. Brian then challenged Cryptologia’s readers to attempt their own solutions in the paper referenced with Figure 3.1. In the August 1977 Scientific American, Martin Gardner challenged his readers to solve it. You may consider yourself so challenged after reading the material on cryptanalysis that follows in this chapter! A solution was presented in Brian Winkel’s article, “Poe Challenge Cipher Solutions,” in the October 1977 Cryptologia (pp. 318-325). Look at this paper only after making a serious attempt to solve it yourself!