Science and Society

Cracking the Cipher Challenge

Name: Cracking the Cipher Challenge
Start: 2002-02-05T14:30:00+01:00
End: 2002-02-05T15:30:00+01:00
Location: CERN

by Simon Singh

Tuesday 5 Feb 2002, 14:30 → 15:30 Europe/Zurich

500/1-001 - Main Auditorium (CERN)

500/1-001 - Main Auditorium

CERN

400

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Description

In the back of 'The Code Book', a history of cryptography, Simon Singh included a series of 10 encoded messages, each from a different period of history. The first person to crack all 10 messages would win a prize of £10,000. Now that the prize has been won, Simon can reveal the story behind the Cipher Challenge. Along the way he will show how mathematics can be used to crack codes, the role it played in World War Two and how it helps to guarantee security in the Information Age.

Organiser(s): James Gillies / ETT Division

Note: * Please note unusual time of seminar **Tea & coffee will be served at 14.00 hrs.