FREE SPEECH may need ENCODING

 So, like any sensible citizen, you're prepared for the worst. No matter what fate throws at you and those you love -  you are ready. There's at least six months worth of food and water, all sealed in containers to guarantee unlimited shelf life. Any medications you might require have been likewise stored. A logical selection of weapons - something to hunt with, something real handy and something that kills with all the ammunition for each - carefully secreted away. Plenty of gasoline/fuel on hand with proper stabilizers added in easy-to-grab containers. You even bought a solar powered emergency radio with a hand crank - just in case. First aid kit - check. Extra clothes - check. Lots of batteries - check. Stash o' cash - check. You have made plans for any and every eventuality. Maps, possible escape routes and alternates chosen, meet-up locations and destinations selected and everyone you care about has been thoroughly briefed. You're ready for anything ...or are you?

 In the event of 'the worst' - communications is the most important tool for survival. In most scenarios, that emergency radio will provide all the information you might need. There is one situation where that radio could end up defeating or destroying all your best laid plans or worse -  it could kill you. Have you seriously contemplated total social breakdown precipitated by the powers that be? In such an event, there will be no 'unapproved' communications allowed and what is sanctioned will be without your best interests in mind. No phones. No computers. No Internet. Not even walkie-talkies or ham radio will work if the government so desires. You will receive only what they want you to hear and worse yet - your ability to stay in touch with others will be, at the very best, 'controlled'. Were such a thing to take place, how would you securely exchange information with others?

 Imagine such a situation. Yes, all forms of communications will be severely restricted, but even the 'government' will need to leave lines open - just to be able to talk among themselves. It's a safe bet you will have access to those lines, and an equally safe bet you will be monitored. In case you've been living under a rock for the last 50 years - the government has the ability to monitor every frequency and every message thereon 24/7/365 worldwide. There is nothing you can do about that. But there is a simple way to keep anyone or any thing - including the most sophisticated super computer every envisioned - from knowing what you are talking about. More importantly, you can do so without arousing any interest whatsoever or raising even the least of suspicion. All it takes is a bad book.

 You don't know this, but I know something about cryptography - encoding and decoding of information. The security clearances I held while in the Navy were specific to 'crypto' - several levels higher than TOP SECRET. I even studied cryptology in college. I've kept abreast. For all the new methods of enciphering - digital, quantum, heuristic - nothing is 'unbreakable'. It may be practically impossible for all intents, but no code is without solution - as long as you have the 'key'. I'll keep it simple. Code requires three things; a system, a key and security. It has been thus and will always remain thus. To date, no code has ever been devised more difficult to break and so easy to use as an old bad book. The book is the key.

 I speak of 'substitution' code - a letter of code is changed - according to a system of substitution - to another letter chosen from a book. You and your correspondent have identical copies of the same book. You agree to use a predetermined page of that book as the actual encryption key. For instance - the first line on page three hundred and twenty five of your book reads ...

....she gazed upon him with longing eyes, filled with tears ....

 My coded message begins DA NN M. I simply substituted the letter in its numerical sequence as it would occur in the alphabet according to the line from the book. 'H' is the 8th letter in the alphabet. I counted eight letters in the passage and came up with 'D'. That is it in simplest form. However, because it is English language it's an easy thing to 'break' this level of encryption by knowing that, in English, letters are used with a certain frequency and double letters are few and since it's the first word of my missive - the word will probably be 'HELLO'

 The level of security can be strengthened by an order of magnitude by agreeing with your correspondent to turn the page at predetermined points, not using obvious combinations of letters, avoiding repetition, punctuation, conventional speech patterns and idiom, frequent use of vernacular, slang and symbols, employing random blocks of letters instead of normal sentence structure and assigning even greater depth of key - change books mid-message. Sounds involved but it's really quite simple and so easy, even small children can do it - in fact - children are very intuitive about 'code'.

 All well and good, but way too 'obvious' for purposes of verbal communications, which will probably be the only communications you will have - the spoken word in casual conversation. Again, refer to an old book. By the way, old, nondescript editions are best - chances are they have never been scanned. In any conversation, especially conversations which might occur during emergency situations, it will always be easy to insert numbers. "Oh, did ya hear Aunt Bertha's cat had eight kittens?" You ask 'when'. "Five days ago" You have 'H' and 'E' and this will work fine if you just need to pass a tiny bit of information.

 The next step is using words and even lines and passages from that same book. In this case the eighth word is 'filled', the fifth word is 'with'. If you use whole lines or passages, it's even easier to convey a very great deal of information. Parents speak in code around their kids all the time - children have their own codes. What I have outlined can be easily understood, takes only a small amount of preparation, costs nothing and is absolutely secure. With it, you can write and speak in confidence. Quite a lot of data could be conveyed in a phone number scrawled on a scrap of paper or an idle conversation at the bread line.

Spread the word!

Comments

[mouse]

I love to do crytogram puzzles in the english language. Any other language would be impossible for me. When the young son of a friend of mine had his 5th birthday, I got him a 'speak and spell' plastic, battery operated teaching tool. He loved it. It had a function to do with coding. I would send him notes in code and he had no problem deciphering them. Now, I do believe you are correct that young people have no trouble with such puzzles. I have trouble deciphering text messages these days. And things like LMAO give me trouble. When I first encountered LOL, I thought for sure it meant Lots of love. I used it all over the place. Hahahahaha at all the inappropriate places it seemed, after I discovered the true meaning. I remember 'pig' latin. We could revert to something like that.

The youtube was not there for me.