FBI issues another crypto challenge, but can you solve it?

by Steve Ragan - Dec 30 2008, 08:15

The FBI has challenged anyone online to solve its new crypto puzzle, developed by FBI Cryptanalysts. Adding to the fun below, The Tech Herald has a cipher for you as well.

Last year, the FBI offered a similar puzzle, and managed to get tens of thousands of people to play the game. Seeing as this is the last week of 2008, and not much is going on in the work space, the puzzle below should help kill some time in the cubes.

The following code comes from this image posted to the FBI's official Web site.

VFWTDLCSWV. YD
NSLMIJFWEJFD GSW SL
NIJNQBLM FOBV EJFDVF
DLNIGTFBSL. KBVBF
YYY.AHB.MSK/NSCDC.OFZ
FS EDF WV QLSY SA
GSWI VWNNDVV.

There is no grand prize or instant fame for solving it. However, it offers a painless way to exercise your mind and, let’s face it, if you are at work reading this, you have some time to kill now don’t you?

To solve the FBI puzzle, you need to use a variation of the Caesar Cipher, named for its Roman origins.

“The Caesar Cipher involves writing two alphabets, one above the other. The lower alphabet is shifted by one or more characters to the right or left and is used as the cipher text to represent the plain text letter in the alphabet above it,” the FBI explains in a primer on ciphers.

By now some sites and comments online will have, at least by the time you read this, posted the answers.

So, with that said, The Tech Herald has a cipher for you in the spirit of the FBI’s challenge.

Keep in mind three things: The first is that you will use letter replacement in this challenge; the second being that we added a bit of twist or two to the base puzzle; and the third is that you will work in various stages while solving the puzzle.

If you solve it, you’ll know what to do. You’ve had your "hnts" already. Good luck.

RFEgWkxLRCBSTEtKIEQgU1QgUyBBRFEgRFEg
VUQgSlUgRFMgRFFLDQpSTU1UIEFLIEtUVlUgSyBB
VFQgSyBRQSBEUSBLVERKIEJTIFhQRCwg
QVRUIEFKICBLU1RUDQpSTE0uIERRRSBBVFQgVEsgWCBZ
VkogTiBTSkRKIEogIFpEV0wgTERCVCBaIFJMU0tLSg0KSyBZ
TEpEVS4gU1QgUyBEIEtCTERFIEQgRFEgREJRIFFMVFUgVUQ
gQlMgRCBCVFMgRFEgUkxNLg0KS0MgRFEgS1hIQkQgTEQgT
EJPSyBCUlFMIERLRC4=

Around the Web