Cipher Archive

Eighteen historical and unsolved ciphertexts, from Poe’s “The Gold-Bug” (1843) to Kryptos, dedicated at CIA headquarters on 3 November 1990, each with origin, status and sources. A solved text opens in the tool that reads it, key and mode set; its solution stays hidden until asked for. Among them: the Beale ciphers, a 1918 ADFGVX radiogram, Enigma messages of 1941–43 and PT-109’s Playfair messages.

• Central Intelligence Agency, “‘Kryptos’ Sculpture”
• Edgar Allan Poe Society of Baltimore, “The Gold-Bug”, Dollar Newspaper text (1843)
• David Kahn, The Codebreakers: The Story of Secret Writing (New York: Macmillan, 1967)