For many Science Olympians, the Codebusters event might be your first step into the art and science of classical cryptography. It’s a great adventure to take an enciphered message and tease out the truth from it! The American Cryptogram Association is here to help you as you prepare for your next competition. ACA members have solved ciphers for high stakes before. Whether it’s competition in our annual Cipher Contest, attacking messages enciphered by criminal masterminds and foreign governments, or just trying to increase the number of ciphers solved from previous issues – ACA members are also trying hard to be the best cipher-solvers they can be. Several ACA members also have Science Olympiad experience (including our current President).
Most Codebusters ciphers are also ACA ciphers! The ACA maintains a list of our cipher definitions which may be helpful to you. (Of course they may vary from the Science Olympiad definitions, so compare them carefully!) Some ACA members have published tools to analyze ciphers and help you solve them. ACA members BION and MiB both have cipher solving tools online. Neither will solve the cipher for you – but they will present you with tools that can automate the process and let you try lots of ideas more quickly, which can be great practice for the main event. Several other downloads and resources are available free of charge from the ACA’s resources page.
The ACA offers you a tool that can immediately strengthen your cipher-solving muscle – our “Solve a Cipher” app. This app is loaded with a library of simple substitution ciphers you can solve right away and get instant feedback on your guesses. Using your knowledge of the English language and your intuition, you’ll be surprised how quickly you can tackle and master the Aristocrat of puzzles.
If you find yourself wanting more, check out our sample issue of the Cryptogram, our journal and magazine. It will give you a taste of what ACA members receive six times a year with a range of ciphers to attack. This sample issue also explains some of our special terminology. If you get stuck, a tutorial is available that will walk you through each cipher. You can also talk to dedicated hobby cryptanalysts on our Facebook group and on our Google group.
We’d love to have you as a member if cryptography strikes your interest! Members get more than 600 carefully-curated ciphers to solve each year, as well as useful cryptographic articles and an invitation to a yearly cryptographic convention. Learn more at www.cryptogram.org!
