Kryptos

is

Over for another year.... :(

Preliminary results appear below and are subject to change.  If you participated in Kryptos this year and notice any errors, please send an email to Stuart.Boersma@cwu.edu and let me know.

Challenge 1  [solution]

Challenge 2  [solution]

 Challenge 3  [solution]

One hundred and sixty two students formed 77 teams representing colleges, universities, and high schools from Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, California, Connecticut, England, France, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Indonesia, Iowa, Kentucky, Massachusetts, Michigan, Missouri, New York, Oklahoma, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Texas, Vermont, Virginia, Wales, and Washington.

Those teams which submitted at least one correct solution are recognized below.  The order of the listings indicates the chronological order of when the solutions were submitted.

Congratulations to all!

Master Codebreakers are those who solved all three challenges and are recognized as achieving theTURING level of achievement:

From Eastern Mennonite University (First Place Team!):

• Hannah Leaman
• Mana Acosta
• Caleb Hostetler

From the University of Georgia (First Place Individual!):

• Liza Shakhmatova

From Oklahoma Baptist University: (Second Place Individual!):

• Jaxon King

From University of Dayton: (Second Place Team!)

• Aaron Boulanger

• Payton Reaver

• Erin Millhouse

From Linfield University:

• Garrett Crouch

• Abby Ross

From Central Washington University:

• James Mathis

• Ethan Davis

• Kieran Cook

From Worcester Polytechnic Institute:

• Jessica Wang

• Benjamin Gobler

From Pacific University:

• Doan Pham

• Michael Sentman

• Xallan Wilson

From Central Connecticut State University:

• A.B.M. Imran Haydar

• Kyle Guarco

Proficient  Codebreakers are those who solved two challenges and are recognized as achieving the BABBAGE level of achievement:

From Penn State and Carnegie Mellon University:

• Wayne Zhao

• Thomas Wang

• Evelyn Kuo

From Western Governors University:

• Michael Klapper

From University of Washington - Seattle:

• Adam Fountain

From Gannon University:

• Timothy Edwards

• Joshua Hicks

• Zack Dickinson

From University of Alaska Anchorage:

• Eric Rangel

• Kyle Walker

From Texas A&M University:

• Samuel McCaulley

• Alex Gonce

• Zachary Swanson

From Rose-Hulman:

• Alyssa Pinkston

• Omar Roth

• Tom Kirchoffer

From Gannon University:

• Michael Dobrzynski

• Bilal Bas

• Andrew Didycz

From Furman University:

• Louisa Brown

• Lily Feingold

• Michael Bowling

From Linfield University:

• Brendan Perez

From Western New England University:

• Taryn Padilla

• Megan McGuinness

From Western New England University:

• Julia Hart

• Owen Boyns

From Western New England University:

• Cole Lynch

• Cole Randt

From Gannon University :

• Alyssa MacLefko

Amateur Codebreakers are those who solved one of the challenges and are recognized as achieving a PRETTY GOOD level of achievement:

From Mount Saint Mary's College:

• Angelica Puig

• Angelina Lopez

From Mount Saint Mary's College:

• Bridget Tasker

From Mount Saint Mary's College:

• Darren Gonzalez

• Kaitlyn Sorto

• Philip Dever

From Mount Saint Mary's College:

• Adam Leone

• Brandon Nolasco

• Christopher Ernissee

From Eastern Mennonite University:

• Ike Esh

• Jonathan Reimer-Berg 

From Mount Saint Mary's College:

• Cole Horos

• Jadien Figueroa

• Anthony Diedzic

From Mount Saint Mary's College:

• John D. Mann III

From Mount Saint Mary's College:

• Jameson Thomas Suraci

• Xavier Rodriguez

From Central Washington University:

• Ariel Shani

From California State University Channel Islands:

• Jasmine Torres

• Joel Alferes

From Gannon University:

• Abigail Palotas

• Devin Williams

From Mount Saint Mary College:

• Grace Baisley

From Mount Saint Mary College :

• Kelsey Cueto

• Dan Mowat

From Gannon University:

• Sydney Bongiorno

• Niky Dos Santos

• Jacob Rudy

From Mount Saint Mary College:

• Jillian Swiderski

• Tia Delseni

• Kate McCann

From Mount Saint Mary College:

• Joshua Summers

From University of Alabama:

• Quade Mainzer

• Cara Cannarozzi

• Kayleigh Little

From Gannon University:

• Thomas Albert

• Paul Kruszka

• John Little

κρυπτοσ or kryptos, is a contest open to any and all undergraduate students. The theme of the contest is centered around the breaking, or cryptanalysis, of ciphers (secret writing). Each challenge presents contestants with a brief scenario together with some ciphertext (encoded message). The goal is to discover the original English plaintext message!

Clues to help break the cipher may be contained in the actual ciphertext or in the details of the accompanying scenario.

While it is not the intent of this contest to test overly technical aspects of crypanalysis or advanced mathematical algorithms, some familiarity with basic codemaking and codebreaking is certainly helpful. Some useful sources include:

• Challenges from previous competitions.
• The American Cryptogram Association.
• Wikipedia entries for Cryptography and Cryptanalysis.
• The Code Book by Simon Singh.
• Codes and Ciphers by R.F. Churchhouse.
• Codes, Ciphers and Secret Writing by Martin Gardner.
• Secret History: The Story of Cryptology by Craig Bauer
• Slides from a recent PNW-MAA minicourse.

Contestants should also be aware that there are quite a few freely available programs and applets that may aid in some of the more tedious aspects of code breaking (e.g. frequency analysis). However, keep in mind that there are never any guarantees with such software!

To Participate

Individual undergraduate students, or teams of up to three, are eligible to participate. Each individual or team must have a faculty sponsor in order to register.

Please read the official contest rules and instructions for submitting solutions before the contest begins.

When the contest begins at 4 p.m. PDT on April 21, 2022, the Cipher Challenges will be available at this website. Begin working and have fun! Solutions need to be submitted by 4 p.m. PDT April 25, 2020. All times are Pacific Daylight Time.

Results will be posted here shortly after the end of the contest. As teams finish each challenge, please prepare and submit solutions according to the guidelines.

Please submit your solutions as you solve each challenge as the time taken to solve a challenge will be used to determine final rankings.

Questions or difficulties?  Email Stuart Boersma [ Stuart.Boersma@cwu.edu ].