The Headline Puzzle is a monthly feature that was started in 1964 by Paul Derthick, a longtime research analyst in NSA’s Operations Organization, as an interesting way to keep his mind sharp outside of his cryptanalytic work. Each Headline Puzzle contains five headlines from recent daily newspapers. Each of the five is a different monoalphabetic substitution, and all five are derived from the same mixed alphabet at different settings against itself. A complete solution includes recovering the plaintext of each HEADLINE and three key words, the SETTING, the KEY and the HAT.
To see an example of a previous Headline Puzzle from November's 60th Anniversary Puzzle, click here for the Encrypted Headlines, here for the Decrypted Headlines, and here for the SETTING, the HAT, and the KEY.
Headline Puzzle: December 2024
The following are all headlines from recent newspapers. Each of the five is a different letter-for-letter substitution. All five are derived from the same mixed alphabet at different settings against itself. Please send solutions, questions and comments to puzzles@uwe.nsa.gov.
1. JHCZ HD JA. OI E AWHYMKZ QEZBK
2. INCEPVH KFTODU XNEUE MPTEU HFPV PV KNTD UIFV UITDD BDFTE
3. SPCMVZUC FPSUFM UC KQUI IYUDI YKCXFPXI UQ CPD BCOBXPCMI
4. IUVRD EJKYM VF RUGVUJM IDF ZUKYB VJVUMJR ZQNKJKFNZ ZYVZ NYRFNB
5. EINIDP NIUFVP ZPVE UIPTJ KQX FZFTJ
Interested in other puzzles? Head to NSA.gov/Puzzles for the latest cryptologic challenges from NSA's puzzling community. Email puzzles@uwe.nsa.gov for help solving our puzzles!