By Jaime Yarbrough – Science Editor – May 14, 2021

Morse code is not an example of encryption but of encipherment. When you solve encipherment, it is called decipherment. Steganography (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steganography ) is the practice of concealing a message within another message or a physical object. When I was enlisted in the United States Air Force, during part of my time I was stationed at Fort Meade, MD, and the National Security Agency (NSA).

Known as ‘The Puzzle Palace,” the very nature of NSA has to do with encrypted communications, among ‘other things.’  I became fascinated with codes and ciphers. I collected several books on the subject and learned about how codes and ciphers have been used throughout history. Just based on my personal knowledge I have an
“Introduction to Cryptography” class at College of the Redwoods.

Encryption of messages or communications is one thing. Decryption is something else quite entirely. Communication between parties requires several components. First, (1) the message (the transmitter), (2)a method of transmission (e.g., physical or electronic), (3)a medium through which to transmit that message and (4) a method of reception (the receiver.)  When encipherment or encryption there are additional steps 1A -encryption or encipherment and 4A decryption or decipherment. The purpose of encryption is to prevent someone who does not know or understand how the message was encrypted from read it and learning what it says or means. When “Knowledge is Power” and the element of surprise is a major element in your tactic of achieving a goal, time is critical.

It is said that even the most sophisticated encoding can be broken but the time to do that is what makes the difficulty important. There are many ‘unbreakable’ codes and ciphers. There are many that can be broken but they take an amount of time that to engage in the task will exceed the importance of the message. If breaking a code would take weeks of months and you only need it to be secure for 48hours it does not need to be overly complicated. Almost anyone who knows about and uses a computer understands the need for secure communications. Hackers, there be, and they do not care about you.

If you enjoy a challenge and solve the introductory message let me know. I’ll give you some more.

Enjoy the weekend.

[]˙ǝɹǝɥʇ ʇno ǝʞɐʍɐ sᴉ oɥʍ ǝǝs s,ʇǝ˥ ˙ǝɔuǝᴉɔs ʇnoqɐ ʍouʞ oʇ pǝǝu ᴉ op ʎɥʍ ɟo uoᴉʇᴉpǝ uǝʇ ɹǝqɯnu ɹnoʎ sᴉ sᴉɥʇ ]