CIA’s Kryptos code cracked after 35 years of mystery

Jim Sanborn’s Kryptos sculpture in the courtyard of the CIA’s Virginia headquarters. Photo / Getty Images

For 35 years, cryptographers have tried to crack the hidden code in the imposing copper sculpture in the courtyard of the CIA’s Virginia headquarters.

Kryptos, erected in 1990, features a wall of encrypted text hiding four messages, etched into what appears to be a piece of paper emerging from a printer.

While the first three codes, known as K1, K2 and K3, were solved as far back as 1999, the fourth cut into the artwork by sculptor Jim Sanborn has defeated the world’s leading cryptologists. Until now.

The solution was in plain sight for anybody ready to delve through a file of Sanborn’s papers, stored at the Smithsonian’s Archives of American Art.

Journalist, author and amateur codebreaker Jarett Kobe, who is based in California, asked Richard Byrne, a friend living near the Smithsonian in Washington DC, to fish out the file in his quest to reveal the final message.

Byrne photographed the contents of the dossier and sent the images to Kobek, the New York Times reported.

Buried in the file were a couple of scraps of paper, stuck together with tape, which read “BERLIN CLOCK”.

They were clues that Sanborn dropped in a piece for the New York Times back in 2010 and 2014.

Another scrap of paper, dating back to 2020, included the words “EAST NORTHEAST”.

That was enough for Byrne to crack the rest of the 97-letter code.

The old-fashioned technique of burrowing through paper documents had succeeded where cutting-edge cryptography had failed.

This was bad news for Sanborn, who had mistakenly included the scraps of paper in files he was donating to the archives at a time when he was being treated for metastatic cancer.

He had planned to auction off the final code, with papers and artefacts, on November 20 for an estimated US$500,000 ($874,000).

This would be the first time the solution was revealed to the public, adding to the value of the sale.

Sanborn, 79, planned to use the money to cover his own medical bills and fund programmes for others with disabilities.

But within a couple of weeks of announcing the auction, Sanborn received an email from Kobek and Byrne, on September 3, saying they had cracked the code.

The sculptor quickly asked the Smithsonian to seal the files until 2075 once he realised his mistake. The drastic measure did not go unnoticed by the cryptology community.

He also began negotiations with the codebreakers.

Initial discussions were amicable, with Sanborn suggesting they sign a non-disclosure agreement in return for a cut of the money raised by the auction.

But the offer was turned down, with the codebreakers fearing they would be accused of being a party to fraud by not revealing, before the auction, that the code had been cracked.

Sanborn, who was so obsessed with keeping the final code under wraps that he slept with a shotgun, turned to the auction house for help.

Auctioneers told the two men they would be lauded by Sanborn and treated as heroes in the cryptology community if they did not reveal the answer.

Otherwise, the auctioneers were ready to sue for breach of copyright, according to the New York Times.

While the amateur codebreakers are happy to keep their secret, they have refused to sign a binding agreement.

Cryptologists, possibly annoyed at how the code was cracked, hope the secret will remain intact until one of them solves the mystery using traditional codebreaking.

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