I ran across a YouTube video this week that I want to share with you – it relates to cryptograms, steganography, and other secret communications. I played around with this in MESH to whet readers’ appetite for this fascinating ancient-yet-geeky aspect of human communication. Take a look at the video first and then we’ll continue the discussion:
As noted in the video, in the 19th century, encrypted newspaper advertisements were a common method of communication. The three presenters of this talk have collected hundreds of encrypted newspaper ads from the 19th century from England, France, and the United States. They use modern open-source cryptography systems to decode centuries-old communications, some of those same systems have decoded messages from the Zodiac killer. Examples of these newspaper cryptograms showed up in Enola Holmes. Even now some of those old messages remain unsolved.
Sound interesting? Let’s dig further. Cryptograms and cryptograph communication were used for hundreds of years in the military. The Rossignols, for example, were a family of French cryptographers and cryptanalysts that served as the French governments’ resource for encrypted communications for generations. Their legacy pioneered how we view secret government communications, to the point where the name ‘Rossignol’ is synonymous in French with ‘skeleton key.’
So What’s Steganography?
But cryptograms aren’t the only form of secret communication! Steganography is the practice of concealing a message within another message or a physical object and it’s been around since 1499. You can use pictures and objects to conceal messages – you can even use music! This is sometimes used against us, with advertising companies using ‘audio beacons’ to verify that the cookies on your browser are YOUR cookies by using the microphone on your cell phone.
Steganography has accomplished some fascinating things over the years. During and after World War II, espionage agents used photographically-produced microdots to send information back and forth. Jeremiah Denton repeatedly blinked his eyes in Morse code during the 1966 televised press conference that he was forced into as an American prisoner-of-war by his North Vietnamese captors, spelling out “T-O-R-T-U-R-E”. That confirmed for the first time to the US Naval Intelligence and other Americans that the North Vietnamese were torturing American prisoners-of-war. In 1985, a klezmer saxophonist smuggled secrets into and out of the Soviet Union by coding them as pitches of musical notes in sheet music.
You can use steganography to communicate with your friends, now. Here’s a walk-through on embedding secret messages inside image files – be sure to drink your Ovaltine! If you’re curious about the differences between steganography and cryptography, you can learn more about their differences here.
Geek: A Grand Tradition
As mentioned earlier, I used MESH to introduce young readers to some of the ancient-yet-geeky secrets of our modern world. We wouldn’t be where we are without geeky people! Being curious, diving down rabbit holes, and nerding about about cool technology – those continue the grand tradition of our geek forebears. Never let anyone tell you that geek isn’t cool.
I hope you’ve enjoyed learning about cryptography, steganography, and other secret communications. Send me an encrypted message, I can’t wait to figure out what it says! 😀
