American Cryptogram Association

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The American Cryptogram Association ( ACA ; German  "American Cryptogram Association" ) is an American association of amateur cryptologists who are particularly interested in classical cryptology . These include historical cryptographic methods for encryption of texts and especially the art of the so generated ciphertexts without knowing the for decryption necessary key to break , so to decipher . The emphasis is on manual methods, for which computers are used as a support, but not exclusively. The focus is on the playful character and the desire to solve puzzles .

history

The Skytale is the oldest known cryptological device and a central element in the ACA logo (see web links )

The ACA was founded on September 1, 1929. Initially, cryptograms encoded by monoalphabetic substitution were in the interest of the association members, as they were popular with the American writer and code breaker Edgar Allan Poe in the 19th century . In English, this type of cryptographic puzzle is also known as an aristocrat . Dozens of other substitution methods soon followed , such as Vigenère , Playfair , Autokey and also transposition methods such as column transposition . The ACA logo (see web links ) shows a Skytale (picture) .  

The Association has a number of books and other publications on this topic in the library of Kent State University in the US state of Ohio . Every year in August, a meeting is held at a different location, such as in the past in Bletchley Park in England or in Fort Lauderdale in Florida . There is also a bimonthly in-house magazine called The Cryptogram , which first appeared in February 1932. It contains specialist articles on the topic as well as puzzles .

Members (selection)

  • Herbert Yardley (1889–1958), pseudonym BOZO, first Vice President from 1933, American cryptologist.
  • Helen Fouché Gaines (1888-1940), pseudonym PICCOLA, member since 1933, wrote the book Elementary Cryptanalysis in 1939 .
  • Rosario Candela (1890–1953), ISKANDER, member from 1934, architect.
  • David Kahn (* 1930), DAKON and ISHCABIBEL, author of the book The Codebreakers .
  • James Gillogly (* 1946), SCRYER, American cryptanalyst.

Web links