2/23/18 Blog Entry

            So, this is a little late.. but that's okay! During the week of February 13th, we got our senior project proposal. We were told we can do anything we wanted to so I decided to do javascript on an online academy but it didn't work so I tried a few other sites but I changed my mind. I looked at Khan Academy and they offer a "Introduction to Cryptography" course; it sounded really interesting so that is currently my project! The course started with "Ancient Cryptography" to "Ciphers" and then the cryptography 101 challenge.

            The scenario of the challenge was that you are walking down the street when a bag is tossed out of a car. The bag contains a vault map, circuit map, article, business card and a secret code. You take a picture of everything. When you return home, you hear the news of a burglary from an insurance office. A reward is being offered for their arrest. You begin to look at the photos and try to retrace the burglars' steps. Each clue has a hint for what cipher it is at the end of the page.

            This was the first clue found in a motel room. The hint was "Review a Caesar Cipher." I clicked on it and started to work it out. However, I was stupid and thought I should decode by hand instead of using the decoder.

         


















            My attempts at doing by hand are on the left and I was so confused as to why I couldn't figure it out. I looked at the comments and then realized to use the decoder. I typed in parts of the message at a time and then rotated the wheel to decrypt the message. I went on to the second clue which you find before leaving the motel room. It uses a code word to encrypt the message and shifts each time you start coding. The word was "sskkuullll" and it brought the second message. It brings you to the train station and gives you:

           
This one took me FOREVER.

It uses a visual telegraph. There are pairs of numbers that coordinate to a letter. I kept getting confused with all of the numbers so I printed a sheet off and did it on that.

After that I went to the next clue which combines ALL of the other ciphers but it was really hard so I decided not to do it and move on. This is what I did last week!