Numbers up for would-be spies who can't crack code

[William Knowles <wk () C4I ORG>]

http://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/0,,44697,00.html

BY MICHAEL EVANS, DEFENCE EDITOR
FRIDAY DECEMBER 01, 2000

The Governments secret intelligence communications headquarters, GCHQ,
has devised a SMERSH-proof code for potential recruits because a
previous brainteaser was too easy.

GCHQ, which employs about 4,500 of the countrys brainiest people,
resorted to coded language for the first time last year to entice
Britains finest young mathematicians into its workforce. A secret
message was buried in its website recruiting material.

The code was created by a young graduate at GCHQ, but it was cracked
within 48 hours. Now he has produced a much more challenging encrypted
message for the latest recruiting campaign.

Last year hundreds of people who spotted the website puzzle managed to
crack the five-word code which, unscrambled, read: Well done, now
apply for a job.

This time only aficionados of binary maths should think of tackling
it, since each letter of the special coded message has been converted
into a binary representation of its position in the alphabet a formula
consisting of only 0s and 1s.

The ordinary decimal system is based on multiples of ten. The number
246, for example, comprises two multiples of 100, four multiples of
ten and six multiples of one.

The binary system, however, is based on multiples of two and there are
five columns of possible multiples for the 26 letters of the alphabet
16, 8, 4, 2 and 1. So Z, the 26th letter, is written as 11010 (one
multiple of 16, one of 8, no multiples of 4, one of 2, and none of 1).
A is represented by 00001.

The brainbox in GCHQ, however, has complicated the teaser by hiding
the 0s and 1s in subtle ways, including using a red and blue colour
scheme to represent the figures. As an additional guide, GCHQ has
helpfully suggested browsing through reference books that explain the
workings of the Bacon Cipher and Bacon Bilateral Cipher.

For budding code-breakers, the site is: www.gchq.gov.uk



*==============================================================*
"Communications without intelligence is noise;  Intelligence
without communications is irrelevant." Gen Alfred. M. Gray, USMC
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