Cryptogram

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For the plants which reproduce by using spores, see Cryptogam.

A cryptogram is a short piece of text encrypted with a simple substitution cipher in which each letter is replaced by a different letter. To solve the puzzle, one must recover the original lettering. Though once used in more serious applications, they are now mainly printed for entertainment in newspapers and magazines.

History of Cryptograms

Cryptograms were not first used as entertainment, but in the Spartan military in 5th century B.C. this code consisted of a staff around which a strip of paper was wrapped without overlapping. A message was written on the paper, which was then unwrapped and sent on its way. The message could only be correctly decoded with the right diameter of stick. Julius Caesar invented the first substitution cypher, one which still bears his name.

The Cryptogram was first used for entertainment during the Middle Ages by monks with spare time. A manuscript found at Bamberg states that Irish visitors to the court of Merfyn Frych ap Gwriad (died 844), king of Gwynedd in Wales were given a cryptogram which could only be solved by transposing the letters from Latin into Greek. Around the 13th century, the English monk Roger Bacon wrote a book in which he listed seven cipher methods, and stated that "a man is crazy who writes a secret in any other way than one which will conceal it from the vulgar". During the Rennaisance, cryptograms were used to political ends.

Solving a Cryptogram

This is usually done by frequency analysis and by recognizing letter patterns in words, such as one letter words, which can only be "I" or "a". Occasionally cryptogram puzzle makers will start the solver off with a few letters. The Cryptogram is also the name of the periodic publication of the American Cryptogram Association (ACA), which contains a large number of cryptographic puzzles.

Alternate Meanings

• Bruce Schneier's monthly newsletter on computer security and cryptography is called the Crypto-Gram. It is freely available both as an electronic mailing list and on Schneier's personal website.
• The American Cryptogram Association has a bi-monthly journal called the Cryptogram.

See also

• List of famous ciphertexts
• American Cryptogram Association

External links

• [Cryptograms.org] - Online and printable cryptograms
• [Cryptogram Cracker] - Online cryptogram solver
• [Cryptograma] - Flash based Cryptogram game (English and Spanish versions)
• [Solve Cryptograms as Major Talon in this science fiction universe]
• [A web page about cryptogram puzzles]
• [The American Cryptogram Association]
• [Bruce Schneier's Crypto-gram newsletter]
• [Audio (podcast) form of Bruce Schneier's Crypto-gram newsletter]
• [Cryptic Quoter] - Functional online cryptogram machine and solver. Has wof and buster extra features.

Classical cryptography [edit]

Ciphers: ADFGVX | Affine | Atbash | Autokey | Bifid | Book | Caesar | Four-square | Hill | Nihilist | Permutation | Pigpen | Playfair | Polyalphabetic | Reihenschieber | Reservehandverfahren | Running key | Substitution | Transposition | Trifid | Two-square | Vigenère

Cryptanalysis: Frequency analysis | Index of coincidence

Misc: Cryptogram | Polybius square | Scytale | Straddling checkerboard | Tabula recta

 

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