This is an online javascript Vigenere utility. Alas, it can't be used for something like Kryptos, because this utility only allows single key, and Kryptos is double-key. Still though, it's useful for single-key Vigenere.

Looks like if I want an online double-key Vigenere decoder, I'm going to have to write one... Stay tuned. :)

Vigenere Encoder/Decoder

Morse code encoder/decoders in both CGI and Java.

Morse Code Utilities

] This is a transcript of the "Cyrillic Projector"
] sculpture. The sculpture was created in the early 1990s
] by James Sanborn (best known for the enigmatic "Kryptos"
] at Langley), and was installed at the University of North
] Carolina, Charlotte, in 1997.

Here's my current crypto project -- compiling an accurate transcript of the Cyrillic Projector. It's my hope that by cracking this code, we may get inspiration for cracking the uncracked section IV of Kryptos. To my knowledge, this transcript that I've created is the only publicly-available transcript on the web.

Sanborn's Cyrillic Projector Code

Mindraker2 wrote:
] Elonka wrote:
] ] "When cryptography is outlawed, bayl bhgynjf jvyy unir
] ] cevinpl."
]
] "When cryptography is outlawed only outlaws will have cryptography"

Oooh, *so* close, but no cigar. Try again! It's a real cipher that can be translated.

RE: When Crypto Is Outlawed...

The Kryptos sculpture at CIA Headquarters has 4 sections of code on it. The first three have been solved. In 1999 there was a big media splash as Jim Gillogly announced his solution, which had been obtained via a computer attack. Part 4 (the last 97 characters) is as yet unsolved.

I wish I could say that I'd solved Part 4, but I haven't (yet). What I *did* do this week though, was come up with a new solution technique for part 3 which I believe to be the "pencil and paper" method that the original authors of the sculpture intended to be used. It's a way of eyeballing the code, such that anyone with access to the ciphertext ( http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/national/daily/july99/kryptoscode19.htm ) could quickly make a grid and check the letters off to get the entire message. -- no elaborate mathematical formulae or number-crunchers required.

I've written to Gillogly and a couple other cryptographers to check my work. If anyone else would like to take a look in the meantime, I've got a page describing the technique which is posted at my Kryptos site:

Elonka's Solution to Part 3 of Kryptos

] Noted Washington, DC artist Jim Sanborn worked in
] collaboration with the designers to create innovative art
] installations for Zola. His elements begin at the door
] with international espionage texts that glow on backlit
] acrylic panels lining the entrance corridor. Showcased in
] the back bar and private dining rooms, Sanborn's
] trademark paper works made from shredded CIA documents,
] are molded to reveal tiny traces of readable words.
]
] Similarly, Sanborn has taken KGB documents and turned
] them into brass sheeting. Lighted from behind, the
] screens become sconces, subtly projecting texts in the
] bar area. A grid of declassified intelligence documents
] from around the world hangs in the historic stairwell.
] The documents, in several languages, but showing the
] evidence of a censor's heavy black pen, are sandwiched
] between plexiglass panels and connected by steel wire to
] make a significant statement. Sanborn has numerous museum
] and gallery shows to his credit as well as public art
] commissions across the country, and notably, at CIA
] Headquarters in Langley, Virginia.

This restaurant next door to the Spy Museum in Washington, evidently has more work by Jim Sanborn, the sculptor who also created the Kryptos sculpture. I wonder if he used any of the same techniques, and might have left some Kryptos clues there?

Zola - Spy Museum Restaurant

] Chilling details of al Qaeda's secret communications
] system - and the possibility of widespread knowledge that
] the devastating attacks on New York and Washington were
] in the works - were unveiled in a courtroom in Milan,
] where a group of Islamic militants are on trial for
] supporting al Qaeda's terrorist activities.
]
] According to reports in the Corriere della Sera newspaper
] and on ABC News' Web site, the secret communications were
] discovered during a November 2001 raid on the Via
] Quaranta mosque in Milan, where police confiscated 11
] computers.

] Investigators believe cell members were using a process
] called stenography, in which special software allows a
] text message to be hidden inside a small part of a
] computer photograph.

Note: "inspectors believe" does not mean that Al Qaeda *was* using this form of crypto, so this may just be more reporting of the unfounded rumors. Also, it's *steganography*, not *stenography*. (sigh)

If anyone can find the actual trial transcripts online (even if they're only in Italian), I'd be very interested in seeing them.

New York Post: Milan trial mentions Al Qaeda and steganography

] A June 15 conversation laid out a blueprint of the
] network's evolution and survival despite law enforcement
] pressure. An unidentified visitor from Germany counseled
] the Egyptian imam of the Via Quaranta mosque in Milan to
] avoid communicating via the Internet, to speak in code
] with associates and to use messengers. Funding was still
] plentiful, the visitor said.

No information about steganography or porn in this article, but it is a lengthy and apparently well-researched description of the links between different terrorist groups. It also includes mention of the Via Quaranta mosque in Milan, which was rumored to be the center of a raid in which several terrorist computers were captured with large numbers of pornographic images on them. Which doesn't mean that the porn contained secret messages (most porn is, after all, just porn), but it is a story worth following to see if this is where some of the rumors about Al Qaeda and steganography may have started.

Al Qaeda in Europe and Iraq

] The National Cryptologic Museum provides a "peek behind
] the curtain" at a once-secret world -- the exploitation
] of enemy cryptology and the protection of American
] communications.

Website of the NSA's Cryptologic Museum. Includes pictures and descriptions of some cryptographic machines and systems over the years.

NSA - National Cryptologic Museum

] During World War II, United States Playing Card provided
] war-related playing cards that were mailed to U.S.
] soldiers in German prison camps.
]
] The cards were specially designed to conceal maps
] detailing escape routes. The maps were revealed when the
] cards were moistened.

Now that's a type of steganography that I hadn't heard of yet. :)

WWII Maps Hidden Inside Playing Cards