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 December's Puzzle, click here for the Encrypted Headlines, here for the Decrypted Headlines, and here for the SETTING, the HAT, and the KEY.
Headline Puzzle: January 2025
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. IFAFLQJF MBF-BQP NMQL WEOMXL BSON WXSNCQO MLFRWP
2. SNQOM ZUCPQF QPBUONP! IVP FKYNL FKGWTONV OF MKNH
3. ULQUZ NRP'G BGGZPC GHQUJ XPBQAQHBGXRP, EXGXPA UWM CBD
4. NT WYMAYHOT HOTHVMS CI WVXL TNUUXG ICE DVEA IXN
5. DIRWF ZKPMW FIRW LIPUWFMIC AZ TIMAQ MWKTWZQ EAPU DIZDIMW
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!