Convicted Terrorist Relied On Single-Letter Cipher 254
Hugh Pickens writes "The Register reports that the majority of the communications between convicted terrorist Rajib Karim and Bangladeshi Islamic activists were encrypted with a system which used Excel transposition tables which they invented themselves. It used a single-letter substitution cipher invented by the ancient Greeks that had been used and described by Julius Caesar in 55BC. Despite urging by the Yemen-based al Qaida leader Anwar Al Anlaki, Karim rejected the use of a sophisticated code program called 'Mujhaddin Secrets' which implements all the AES candidate cyphers, 'because "kaffirs," or non-believers, know about it so it must be less secure.'"
Re:More spreadsheet abuse (Score:5, Informative)
Actually considering the story on The Register is from March, I'll stick with hilarious.
Re:More spreadsheet abuse (Score:4, Informative)
Muslim mathematicians no doubt helped cracking it.
Close. The Ceasar shift was broken before Islam even began. But the improved version known as the Vigenere cipher was broken (after being considered unbreakable for centuries) by the Arabic scientist Al-Kindi in the ninth century A.D.
Re:More spreadsheet abuse (Score:4, Informative)
Kaffir != non believers. (Score:2, Informative)
Re:More spreadsheet abuse (Score:3, Informative)
Wait, huh? Wikipedia says the Vigenère cipher was created in the 16th century.