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 August, click here for the Encrypted Headlines, here for the Decrypted Headlines, and here for the SETTING, the HAT, and the KEY. Visit NSA.gov/Puzzles to learn more about this and other cryptologic challenges from NSA's puzzling community.
Headline Puzzle: September 2024
The following are all headlines from recent daily 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.
1. JRHANG-JHKE JOUUE XOUVGU YNOEV PRC ARKS KGOLV DU RUG LNA ZOLG
2. QKNSUPOU-NUPKG VHRXUQT PKCKVAKG AH VHQPASWVA QKD OKT NSEGMK
3. MZUZ ZUJABMZLJU CSKK APTZSM ZJ UWZOP UJZJSBM LMJSK QPGALZAF
4. YWIWMW'X UGF SWLFP ZPOKRJU PWKVPFWMX WU W ZDVV XUFB
5. VALYUJBAPU JPUJSMY MPC CZFU JB TPPJ UNBWWPAU' MPPVU
Ready to check your work and see if you decrypted the headlines? Click here for the SETTING, the KEY and the HAT.
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!