Enthusiasts have found answer to a puzzle outside security agency’s headquarters, but their methods have split the codebreaking community
For 35 years, cryptographers have tried to crack the final hidden code in the imposing copper sculpture in the courtyard of the CIA’s Virginia headquarters.
Despite two clues being released, the message hidden inside the Kryptos sculpture had remained secret for almost four decades. Until now.
Two amateur codebreakers discovered the solution hidden in papers that the sculptor Jim Sanborn donated to the Smithsonian’s Archives of American Art in Washington.
Mr Sanborn had mistakenly included in the file a yellowing scrap of paper held together with tape that contained the original, unencrypted message, the New York Times reported.
The artwork was erected in 1990 and features a wall of encrypted text hiding four messages, etched into what appears to be a piece of paper emerging from a printer.
The first three codes, known as K1, K2 and K3, were solved as far back as 1999 by the CIA’s own codebreakers.
Jarett Kobek, a journalist, author and amateur codebreaker based in California, asked Richard Byrne, a friend living in Washington, to fish out Mr Sanborn’s file after reading that he intended to auction off the final answer next month.
RR Auctions, the firm hosting the sale, had estimated the solution would fetch as much as $500,000 (£372,000). Mr Sanborn intended to donate some of the money to charity and put the rest in a fund for future medical expenses.
Mr Kobek had read on the auctioneers’ website that the coding charts, used to encrypt the original messages, were held in the Smithsonian.
He directed his friend to photograph the contents of the dossier, hoping to find something that would help the two men piece together the mystery.
“This is a problem everybody has been attacking as a STEM [Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics] problem,” Mr Kobek told the New York Times. Cryptographic science could not uncover the message. “But library science could,” he said.
Buried in the file were a couple of scraps of paper, stuck together with tape, which read “BERLIN CLOCK”. This was the first of two clues Mr Sanborn had given about the final code, dropped into articles for The New York Times in 2010 and 2014.
Another scrap of paper, dating back to 2020, included the words “EAST NORTHEAST,” the second clue. But, according to the artist, there are two more phrases that must be figured out in order for the codebreaker to glean the final riddle, and thus, the answer.
At this point, Mr Kobek and Mr Byrne knew they were on to something and kept digging, eventually discovering the plain-text message in full.
The old-fashioned technique of burrowing through paper documents had succeeded where cutting-edge cryptography had failed.
Within a couple of weeks of announcing the auction, Mr Sanborn received an email from Mr Kobek and Mr Byrne, on Sept 3, saying they had cracked the code.
The three men held a “perfectly lovely” conversation about how to proceed. The sculptor asked the Smithsonian to seal the files until 2075 once he realised his mistake.
The drastic measure did not go unnoticed by the cryptology community.
He told The New York Times he had been undergoing treatment for metastatic cancer at the time of the donation. “I was not sure how long I would be around and I hastily gathered all of my papers together,” he said.
Mr Sanborn then held another call, suggesting Mr Kobek and Mr Byrne sign a non-disclosure agreement in return for a cut of the money raised by the auction.
But the offer was turned down, with the codebreakers fearing they would be accused of being party to fraud by not revealing, ahead of the auction, that the code had been cracked.
The two men were upset with his suggestion that they should sign NDAs, and the offer of money rankled. “It’s a complete red line,” Mr Byrne said. “Non-starter. Not happening.”
Mr Sanborn, who sleeps with a shotgun after obsessive fans threatened him and repeatedly tried to hack his computer, warned the men not to release the code under any circumstances, telling them they would be treated as “pariahs” in the cryptology community for spoiling the fun.
Auctioneers told the two men they would be lauded by Mr Sanborn and treated as heroes in the cryptology community if they did not reveal the answer.
Otherwise, the auctioneers were ready to sue for breach of copyright, according to The New York Times.
The news that the code has been cracked has since been made public on the auctioneers’ website, although the answer, for now, remains a secret.
Some in the community are annoyed at how the code was cracked, insisting that without working it out through codebreaking, they haven’t really solved it.
Elonka Dunin, one of the most active members of the online cryptology community, told The New York Times: “If they don’t have a method, it’s not solved.”
For now, the secret remains under wraps. Bidding begins on Thursday, with the final auction taking place on Nov 20.