Code Breaking Trivia Quiz

Answer: Moving each letter of the alphabet a fixed number of spaces

One of the earliest known ciphers, "Caesar's Cipher" consists of replacing each letter with a different one the same number of places down the alphabet. e.g. A with D, B with E, C with F etc. Simple, isn't it?

Answer: The Vigenere Cipher

The Cipher was formed in 1553 By Giovani Battista Bellaso, a well-known Italian cryptologist of his time. The name of the cipher was mistakenly attributed to Blaise de Vigenère 30 years after, when he created his own version of the code based on Bellaso's.

The encryption method was so strong that it was only 300 years after, in 1854, that the famous mathematician Charles Babbage managed to break a variant of it.

Answer: Babington Plot

Anthony Babington was a young man who was recruited to save Mary Queen of Scots and who was imprisoned at the time by her cousin Queen Elizabeth I. Together with other conspirators, Babington was communicating with the imprisoned Mary Stuart through encrypted letters.

After the betrayal of Robert Poley and Gilbert Gilford (who was a double agent), Elizabeth's security intelligence (led by Sir Francis Walsingham) managed to intercept the coded letters. This evidence of treason led Babington and eventually Mary to their deaths.

Answer: Sir George Scovell

The "Great Chiffer" was an invulnerable code developed by the Rossignol family of cryptographers in the 17th century. When Joseph Bonaparte used a variation of the cipher to send a letter to his Brother Napoleon, the letter fell into the British hands and Sir George Scovell managed to decipher the most of it, which played a vital part in the later years of the Napoleonic Wars.

Answer: Mexico

Facing the spectre of losing the war, the Germans, in an attempt to impede the allies' constant supply from U.S, instructed foreign secretary A. Zimmermann to send an encrypted message to the Mexican government in an effort to lure them into an attack against the United States.

The telegram produced the opposite results when the British Intelligence intercepted, deciphered and published the contents of the note which turned American public opinion against the Germans.

Answer: Arthur Scherbius

The Enigma machine is older than most people think. The first design was developed by A. Scherbius in the 1920s, and was used by banks and commercial services. Werner Siemens and Robert Bosch were the creators of the giants Siemens and Bosch manufacturing companies respectively, while Marian Rejewski was head of the Polish cryptologists who contributed to the decryption of the Enigma machine.

Answer: An extra rotor

It was German's Admiral Karl Donitz who ordered his U-boat fleet to use a better modified version of Enigma. For that purpose, a fourth rotor was added which made Turing's work even more difficult. Fortunately, the new encryption method did not last long after a copy of the code book was captured from the German submarine U-559.

Answer: Japan's Purple Encryption

Japan had created its own "enigma machine", which was initially code-named "Red" by the Americans, but later acquired the better-known name of "Purple". During WWII, the machine consisted of two typewriters as well as an electrical rotor system with a 25 character alphabetic switchboard.

Answer: United States

In the dawn of the cold war, initiated early even before the end of WWII, the "Venona project" was a counter-intelligence program performed and developed by the U.S with a goal to decipher messages sent by the Soviet Union intelligence agency. During the programs 40 years' life span, at least 3,000 message were decrypted.

Answer: Money

Time magazine once described him as one of the most damaging Soviet spies in history. While serving as a naval officer in a nuclear submarine, John Walker went bankrupt after failing twice to establish his own profitable business. In 1968 he begun to sell government secrets to the Soviets for a salary of $1,000 a week.

After many years, in 1985, he was arrested and sentenced to life imprisonment.