Presented at
PhreakNIC 21 (2017),
Nov. 4, 2017, 6 p.m.
(60 minutes).
William and Elizebeth Friedman, married in 1917, became a couple that is legendary within the cryptologic community. Starting their work while looking for ciphers in the works of William Shakespeare, their work grew into codebreaking for the United States. William coined the term "cryptanalysis", and wrote the manuals which became the foundation for American military cryptographers. Elizebeth herself was a legendary code-breaker, solving ciphers throughout both World Wars, and foiling the efforts of international smugglers. Together, they created the foundation for what today is known as the National Security Agency. This year, Elonka, on a visit to Arlington National Cemetery, noticed that the Friedmans had also hidden a cipher on their tombstone! Come to this talk to learn all the details.
Presenters:
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Elonka Dunin
Elonka Dunin is a professional game developer, writer, and cryptographer. She serves as chair on the board of the Nashville2600. She is webmistress of two popular crypto-related websites which contain
information about the world's most famous unsolved codes. As of 2015, her elonka.com website has had over five
million page views. In 2000 she was awarded a prize for being the first person to crack the 1999 PhreakNIC v3.0 Code. In 2003 she led the team that
cracked the famous Cyrillic Projector cipher, which turned out to contain extracts of classified KGB documents. In 2006 she authored "The Mammoth Book of Secret Codes and
Cryptograms", which has been published internationally with multiple re-printings. Bestselling author Dan Brown honored Elonka by naming one of
the characters in his Da Vinci Code sequel The Lost Symbol after her: "Nola Kaye" is an anagrammed form of "Elonka".
She has also been featured by the popular webcomic Penny Arcade, where she created a
cipher that dovetailed with the daily comic. In other hobbies, Dunin is an avid Wikipedia editor, was elected as an administrator in 2007, and
has been a significant contributor to over 500 articles, especially in topics related to the Crusades and medieval history.
When not in front a computer, she's probably out geocaching.
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