dan brown

[yobanfa]

has anybody cracked the code on the back page on Digital Fortress?

[Oneeyedvic]

Yes (well actually I cheated and googled it)

Do you want it?

[yobanfa]

yes please

[Oneeyedvic]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_Fortress# Code_solution

The code that appears in the end of the book

128-10-93-85-10-128-98-112-6-6-25-126-39-1-68-78

is decrypted by looking at the first letter of the chapter for each number. For example, chapter 128 starts 'When Susan awoke'. The resulting text is:

WECGEWHYAAIORTNU

Decryption is performed using a columnar transposition cipher, termed a "Caesar Square" cipher in the book (this is unrelated to the Caesar cipher). The letters are arranged into a square:

W E C G
E W H Y
A A I O
R T N U

and read from the top down.

WEAREWATCHINGYOU

Add spaces and you get the plaintext,

"We are watching you"

a reference to the NSA's monitoring systems.

[yobanfa]

thank you so much, its easy once its pointed out to you.