"The puzzle, a copper sculpture engraved with four coded messages, has fascinated professional and amateur cryptographers since 1990, when artist Jim Sanborn installed it at the CIA's headquarters in Virginia. The four encrypted messages are made up of 869 characters . The final section, K4, begins with OBKR and contains 97 letters. To claim a solution, one must show how they decoded it from that ciphertext."
"After years of failed attempts by enthusiasts to decode K4, Sanborn was preparing to auction off the solution, expected to fetch between $300,000 and $500,000. On September 3, however, he received an e-mail from journalists Jarett Kobek and Richard Byrne containing the full decoded text. Kobek and Byrne found the solution after noticing in the auction listing that Sanborn's coding charts were in the Smithsonian's collection. Byrne photographed the papers, and Kobek later realized they included taped-together scraps that revealed K4's original plaintext."
Kryptos is a copper sculpture at the CIA headquarters engraved with four coded messages totaling 869 characters. The final passage, labeled K4, begins with OBKR and contains 97 letters. The first three passages were solved in the 1990s; K4 remained unsolved for 35 years. Jim Sanborn planned to auction the solution, expecting $300,000–$500,000. Journalists Jarett Kobek and Richard Byrne located Sanborn's coding charts in the Smithsonian archives; photographed scraps taped together that revealed K4's original plaintext, including the clues BERLIN CLOCK and EAST NORTHEAST. Sanborn confirmed the solution and asked the Smithsonian to seal the files for 50 years.
Read at www.scientificamerican.com
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