Privacy, Secrecy, Brevity, Speed

Ciphers & Shorthands Demystified

© 2012 Nick Pelling – nickpelling@nickpelling.com

http://www.ciphermysteries.com/

What should you get from this?

• The confidence and ability to:– see a cipher or shorthand for what it is– work with and transcribe modified writing – know the limits of what you’re doing– not be fooled!

The four -graphies

• Crypto- = ‘hidden’

• Stegano- = ‘concealed’

• Steno- = ‘abbreviated’

• Tachy- = ‘speedy’

However… they overlap & conflict.

What to expect from this talk…

Brevity[Stenography]

Speed[ Tachygraphy ]

Privacy[Cryptography]

Secrecy[Steganography]

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3: Transcribing modified texts

Part 4: Some real examples

It’s a complex endeavour!

Cryptography

Cryptology

Cryptanalysis

Test results

Hypotheses

Speculations

HistoricalImagination

HistoricalAnalysis

Observations

Transcriptions

“Stuck in the middle with you”

Misunderstoodmysteries

Self-constructedmethodologies

Self-appointedcode-breaker hero

Appropriatedmysteries

Imaginarymethodologies

Clichédcryptographers

?

?

?

CipherNovelists

CipherTheorists

Privacy vs Secrecy

• Sex with your partner is private

• Sex with your tennis partner is secret

Or, somewhat more cryptographically…

• Private = we can see it but we can’t read it

• Secret = we can’t even see it to read it

Privacy

• Nerds

• GCHQ

• Mathematics

• Permutation

• Substitution

• Brains / Intellect

• Cryptography

• Transformation

Secrecy

• Spies

• MI6 / James Bond

• Disguise

• Psychology

• Transposition

• Visuospatiality

• Steganography

• Deception

Mapping Privacy & Secrecy

Alberticipher wheel

Trithemiuscipher square

Vigenereautokey

CardanGrille Nulls

Pigpen

Homophoniccipher

Monoalphabeticsubstitution

Numbercipher Verbose

cipher

Francis Baconbilterary cipher

Twin-letterreplacement

NomenclatorAnagram

cipher

Private

Plain

TransparentSecret

[The VoynichManuscript!]

TrithemiusDemonic messages

CardanGrille

So many cipher techniques!

Yes… but it’s not actually a problem for us.

Almost all clever cipher tricks never escaped from crypto theoreticians’ textbooks.

Just about every pre-1800 cipher you’re likely to see follows one basic pattern…

The Basic Cipher Key

A simple format that was used for centuries!

• Letter Key (“homophonic” if >1 per letter)

• Gemine (to replace doubled letters)

• Nulle (nonsense letters)

• Nomenclatura (to replace groups / words)

• …plus any special tricks or hacks!

1450

Milan

Handout: cipher history stuff!

Brevity vs Speed

Two specific lacks:-

• If you lack writing space, you need Brevity

• If you lack writing time, you need Speed

Brevity

• Medium-independent

• Abbreviation– Contraction– Truncation– Acronyms– Scribal traditions

• Symbol Dictionaries

• Logical “conlangs”

Speed

• Medium-dependent

• Designed systems

• Easy to use

• Stroke-based

• (Modern phonetic)

Mapping Brevity & Speed

SlowFast

Verbose

ConciseTironianNotae

MorseCode

Mr Ratcliff'sabbreviations

Shelton'ssystem

GabelsbergerSystem

Abjad

Text

Local scribalabbreviations

PitmanPhonetic

(Greektachygraphy )

Bright'sCharacterie

Rich'sshorthand

Modern shorthand structure

• Letter key – one rapid stroke per letter

• Trick for writing vowels at speed– Very short variant stroke– Discarding them completely (“abjad”)– Direction (relative to word’s initial letter)

• Optional: logical word construction

• Optional: many extra shapes (‘arbitraries’)

Bright’s Characterie (1588)

Shorthand comparison to 1750

• Isaac Pitman (1884) History of Shorthand, pp.129-131

Jeremiah Rich’s arbitraries…

…and hundreds more!

Getting Started

• How old is it?– If pre-1600, it’s almost certainly a cipher.

• If it’s all numbers, is each less than 100?– If yes, probably a number cipher: else a code.

• Is it clearly designed for rapid writing?– If yes, probably a modern shorthand.

• How many different shapes (approx)?– If 25 or less, very likely to be a simple cipher.

Common Transcription Pitfalls

Things to remember at all times:

• The text might be miscopied (especially if printed)• The ink might have faded• Later owners might have tried to restore it• Later owners’ marks might be misinterpreted as original• Beware wear, stains, rips, tears, contact transfers, etc• Bifolios might have been shuffled or reversed

Key question: what happened to it to leave it this way?

Useful Transcription Tips

• Patiently build up your own symbol key

• Look for ASCII similarities to keep it quick

• Transcribe shape variants defensively

• Don’t be tricked, particularly by punctuation

• Transcribe 25% well, not 100% badly!

Note: this always takes longer than you think!

Now… some real examples!

1. A celebrity!

• What is it? What happened?

2. Another writer!

• What is it? What happened?

3. Ludovico Spoletani (who he?)

• What is it? What happened?

4. The Anthon Transcript

• What is it? What happened?

5. The Outer Limits…

• What is it? What happened?

Thank you for your attention!

Any questions?

© 2012 Nick Pelling – nickpelling@nickpelling.com

http://www.ciphermysteries.com/