Convicted Terrorist Relied On Single-Letter Cipher

Hugh Pickens writes "The Register reports that the majority of the communications between convicted terrorist Rajib Karim and Bangladeshi Islamic activists were encrypted with a system which used Excel transposition tables which they invented themselves. It used a single-letter substitution cipher invented by the ancient Greeks that had been used and described by Julius Caesar in 55BC. Despite urging by the Yemen-based al Qaida leader Anwar Al Anlaki, Karim rejected the use of a sophisticated code program called 'Mujhaddin Secrets' which implements all the AES candidate cyphers, 'because "kaffirs," or non-believers, know about it so it must be less secure.'"

Comments

Re:More spreadsheet abuse

[azalin]

In related news: "Microsoft provides Terrorists with software to plan attacks"

Not that a piece of paper could have done the job as well (or probably better given the use of a halfway decent crypto scheme).

Re:Two types of cryptography

[namgge]

There are two types of cyptography: one that allows the Government to use brute force to break the code, and one that requires the Government to use brute force to break you.

Re:More spreadsheet abuse

[PopeRatzo]

But the improved version known as the Vigenere cipher was broken (after being considered unbreakable for centuries) by the Arabic scientist Al-Kindi in the ninth century A.D.

It is said that upon breaking the Vigenere cipher, Al-Kindi's first comments were, "Death to America!"

I think that might be an apocryphal story, though.