Perhaps the most famous inscription in the US Central Intelligence Agency, which is headquartered, as we all know, in Langley, Virginia, is the biblical words chipped in the marble of the main hall: “And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free”(And may you see the truth, and the truth will make you free, John 8:32) However, there is another text that has become the subject of general excitement and interest; the text, which is the quintessence of everything that happens within the walls of the CIA, is 865 symbols of seeming absolute nonsense, squeezed out in a copper sheet 1.3 cm thick.
The Kryptos installation, created by a man named James Sanborn, settled in the CIA court as far back as 1988, when construction began on a new and more modern office behind the main building. The agency needed a street sculpture between the two buildings, so the choice fell on a piece of art "for everyone", which in fact no one can ever "see." Sanborn called his creation with the Greek word "hidden" for a reason, because this work is the clearest illustration of the secrecy, secrecy, intimacy and illusion of human life, the text of which is one of the most ideal codes today.
Despite the fact that 20 years have passed since the installation, the text of the message is still far from being deciphered. The world community of cryptanalysts, along with the CIA and the FBI, have dismantled only the first three sections of the four during this time. Oddly enough, this did not bring them one iota closer to the final goal, because the sharp prose that opens after deciphering makes the riddle even more confusing. Until now, 97 symbols of the last part (known as K4) remain undeciphered, and the longer this "race" continues, the more people go crazy with powerlessness.
Jim Sanborn, creator of Kryptos.
And there are certain reasons for that. Regardless of how a person perceives Kryptos himself, he is the embodiment of the nature of the CIA - after all, he was created precisely to show everyone why secrets and tricks so fascinate us.
"It's all about the power of secrecy," says Sanborn himself, who lives with his wife on the island. He is tall and sturdy and looks much younger than his 63 years. Behind the house is his last work - a huge 9-meter replica of the world's first particle accelerator, surrounded by the original details of the Manhattan Project. The atomic "tackle" fits perfectly into the general concept of Sanborn's work, which he himself calls "the concentration of invisible forces."
Kryptos is perhaps the author's strongest statement about what we do not know and do not see in this world about things that seem to be right in front of our eyes. The whole sculpture is not only a huge, S-shaped copper plate with embossed symbols, standing exactly at the expense of a part of the mahogany trunk. Scattered below are massive chunks of granite forming a small fountain. And despite the fact that most of the installation is located near the CIA cafeteria, where analysts and spies can enjoy its view while eating in the fresh air, Kryptos reveals his secret on a completely different side - facing the new building.
William Webster, former director of the CIA.
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James Sanborn is sometimes called the Devil's Agent because he will never tell his secret. The heart of Kryptos, a copper plate, as the author says: "over time, she will give all her secrets to others."
When Sanborn began work on the order, he knew almost nothing about cryptography. So when Ed Scheidt, who had just finished his career as head of the Langley Crypto Center, offered his services to James, James literally blossomed with joy. However, Ed Scheidt also served two masters all the time of cooperation with Sanborn: on the one hand, he needed to maintain the secrets of the Office, and on the other hand, together with a person who does not have the slightest idea about cryptography, create a unique piece of code and sculpture.
It all started small - Scheidt taught Sanborn the rudimentary techniques of cryptography from the late 19th century to World War II. After experimenting with various encryption methods, including poly-letter substitutions, matrix shifting and transposition, both masters (each in his own business) concluded that the ideal would be to resort to "old school" methods - artisan cryptography. They both believed that this would make the specialists sweat and create some pressure on the CIA employees, who rightly considered themselves to be among the best masters of the cipher. However, Sanborn made all these decisions alone and did not share them with Scheidt. “I thought the first three sections would be transcribed in weeks, maybe months,” says the author. Scheidt believed that the whole puzzle would be solved in less than 7 years. They were both wrong.
During the two years of construction, there were moments of intrigue and paranoia, as it is always difficult to maintain a balance between the goal and the client. “We had to play on the secret side,” says Ed Scheidt of unnamed people with telephoto lenses and high-sensitivity microphones. “There were people trying to climb the stairs to the wall of my studio in order to take pictures of the interior,” Sanborn recalls. At some point, he even came to the conclusion that factions within the CIA itself wanted to destroy the project, since sometimes completely inexplicable difficulties arose. “For example,” says Sanborn, “one time a huge truck full of stones for the courtyard disappeared. He just disappeared. And was never found. I saw him in the evening, returned in the morning - and he is not. No one ever told me what exactly happened to him."
Sanborn finished the sculpture in time for the opening of the new building in November 1990. The copper table was installed, and what the author and his advisor had hoped for happened to the smallest detail. When the world of cryptography learned of a new challenge in its direction, the best decryption specialists got down to work. Imagine Sanborn's surprise when, in the first 7 years, sections K1, K2 and K3 were not "opened". The first winner, a CIA man named David Stein, spent 400 hours of personal time over the Sections and did indeed treat the disclosure of the code as a religious revelation. In February 1998, he presented his discovery to all the CIA staff in a large audience and … not a single word leaked to the press. Sixteen months later, the authoritative James Gillogly, a cryptanalyst from Los Angeles, using his Pentium II and his own software, cracked all the same three sections. When news of Gillogly's success leaked to the media, the CIA also declassified the details of Stein's research. Thus, 2 people appeared in the world, regardless of each other, who broke the code of the first three sections.
The first section, K1, uses a modified Vigenere cipher. This is a substitution cipher - each letter corresponds to a different letter and can only be "solved" by having the correct letters of the alphabet on the right side. The keywords that helped define the substitution are KRYPTOS and PALIMPSEST. And the erroneous word in this case - IQLUSION may be the key to the disclosure of K4.
K2, like the first section, is encrypted using the letters on the right. The only trick that Sanborn has used is to wedge an X between some sentences, which makes the opening process more difficult because of the need to be aware of the "extra character". The keywords here are KRYPTOS and ABSCISSA, and the misspelled word is UNDERGRUUND.
Another cryptographic technique was applied in K3, the third section is transposition. All symbols are connected and can only be deciphered by opening complex matrices and mathematical methods describing their position. It contains the same erroneous keyword - DESPARATLY, and the last sentence CAN YOU SEE ANYTHING? closed in semantic brackets with symbols X and Q.
Sanborn originally made the fourth section, K4, much more burglar resistant. The whole K3 sentence hints that the K4 text is not standard English (if at all English) and will require a second level of cryptanalysis. Wrong words may be the key to uncovering the section, but most likely, to unveil the fourth section, you will have to take into account other installation “anchors” - Morse code on one of the stones, a compass, and perhaps even a small fountain.
To believe that the solution of the first three sections would lead to the rapid opening of the fourth is fundamentally wrong, and all those who tried their luck at the copper plate quickly became convinced of this. Partial solutions only confused the general mystery and intrigue.
K1 is a text written by Sanborn himself: "Between subtle shading and the absence of light lies the nuance of iqlusion." In this case, the word iqlusion is a deliberate mistake, and the entire section is translated into Russian as: "Between the darkness and the absence of light lies the nuance of illusion."
K2 is the text of a telegraph transmission, which contains both coordinates and data on the magnetic field, information transmission. The coordinate points lead to a place a few hundred steps from the installation site - there is nothing of interest there. Its decrypted text:
Here, the author has applied a trick - the symbol X between sentences, which complicates the autopsy process. However, the text was still decrypted:
It was totally invisible. How's that possible? They used the Earth's magnetic field. X The information was gathered and transmitted undergruund to an unknown location. X does langley know about this? They should. Tt's buried out there somewhere. X who knows the exact location? Only WW this was his last message. The X thirty-eight degrees fifty-seven minutes six point five seconds north seventy-seven degrees eight minutes forty-four seconds West id by rows.
Translation: It was completely invisible. How was this possible? They used the earth's magnetic field. Information was collected and transmitted underground to an unknown location. Does Langley know about this? Must. It's buried out there somewhere. Who knows the exact location? WW Only This was his last message. Thirty-eight degrees fifty-seven minutes six and a half seconds north, seventy-seven degrees eight minutes forty-four seconds west. In rows.
From this record, it was possible to establish that WW is William Webster (William Webster), and the numbers (38 57 6.5 N, 77 8 44 W) are the geographical coordinates of the intelligence department itself.
K3 paraphrases an entry from the diary of anthropologist Howard Carter, who in 1992 opened the tomb of Emperor Tutankhamun, ending with the words "Can you see anything?" ("Do you see anything?"). When Gillogly was able to open this section, he said he experienced the same joy and excitement that Carter had. In a sense, this quote is a great phrase, metaphorically describing the work of a cryptographer, and possibly the entire CIA.
The 97 characters of the last part, K4, still keep their cipher. K4 has become a kind of "Everest of the code" for many. Both Scheidt and Sanborn affirm the fact that they went to great lengths to make the last part the biggest obstacle. Already, there are many theories about how you can break her code. Do you need access to the sculpture or are there enough letters? What role does the morse code play on one of the stones? Every detail, every little aspect of the installation has been polished, examined, sometimes licked with microscopes and magnifiers during these two decades. Many go to the brink of insanity in futile attempts to decipher the latter part - a Michigan businessman sold his software business just to devote time to the cipher. 1,300 people from a fanatical group on Yahoo!collectively tried to advance the work on the cipher even one step forward, going over all sorts of options, from complex mathematics to astrology. Randy Thompson, another Kryptos fan who created and maintains one of the most informative sites on the subject, spent three years decrypting K4. As he himself believes, he got very close to solving the problem: "It may happen tomorrow, or it may take the rest of my life."
What makes the attempt even more challenging is the fact that the puzzle creator is still alive and, in theory at least, is a potential source of information. For almost two decades now, the Kryptos community has been playing with Sanborn in the so-called "path of god", when any word spoken by James is literally scanned for clues.
"There is no intentional misinformation in my mind," says Sanborn. "I am a benevolent cryptanalyst." However, people continue to write, call, and sometimes even visit James. Many of them are no longer amused by the fact that Sanborn is the only person who knows the secret.
Despite the fact that James Sanborn usually remains in the shadows, there are situations that he sees fit to comment on. So, for example, in 2005 he refuted Dan Brown's "theory" that the letters WW from the K3 section can be turned into MM, meaning "Mary Magdalena".
But the speculation does not end there either. Official history has it that the only person with whom Sanborn shared the text of K4 was the then CIA Director, William Webster. By virtue of this theory, the fact that the decrypted text of K3 contains the words "Who knows the exact location only WW" also speaks. In 2005, following the Brown affair, Sanborn confirmed that these letters refer to Webster, not Mary Magdalene. And in 1999, Webster himself told the New York Times that the decision was "equally obvious and philosophical."
However, Sanborn himself says that "I deceived them all and no one has a complete answer." Then even Webster doesn't know the truth?
“No,” says the author. He took all the necessary measures to make sure of one simple fact - even after his death, there will not be a single person who knows the very truth. To all this, James adds that even he does not already know the complete solution.
If anyone succeeds in breaking the last cipher, the hunt for the "absolute truth" of Kryptos will not end there. "The mystery can be much more than what can be seen with the eyes," says Scheidt: "just because you managed to break part of it, you will not be able to find the answer." Then the logical question is: is there an "answer" in principle? Both Sanborn and Scheidt insist that there is - however, they will be equally happy if no one ever finds it. As the author says: "When an art piece loses its secret, it loses everything."
In November 2010, Jim Sanborn, in honor of the twentieth anniversary of his creation, decided to give a hint - he opened six letters from 64 to 69. The open letters represented the name of the German capital, BERLIN. At the same time, Sanborn called this word “essential key” and hinted that it “globalizes” sculpture. Section K4 characters from 70 to 74 (MZFPK) after decoding - CLOCK. The resulting phrase (BERLIN CLOCK) may indicate a Berlin clock.
But, despite the hint, the entire text of the last fragment remains unsolved. To this day, sculptor Jim Sanborn, veteran cryptographer Edward Scheidt and former CIA director William Webster have remained silent.
There is a copy of Kryptos at the Hirschhorn Museum of Contemporary Art in the Washington Mall. The author christened this Kryptos Antipodes. And next to it, of course, there are not all those elements that complement the sculpture in the courtyard of the CIA: next to the curved board is a small bubbling pond, stones on which some sentences are engraved, compass arrows, a magnetic rock, etc.