Schneier - Substitution Cipher Based on The Voynich Manuscript

Here’s a fun paper: “The Naibbe cipher: a substitution cipher that encrypts Latin and Italian as Voynich Manuscript-like ciphertext“:

Abstract: In this article, I investigate the hypothesis that the Voynich Manuscript (MS 408, Yale University Beinecke Library) is compatible with being a ciphertext by attempting to develop a historically plausible cipher that can replicate the manuscript’s unusual properties. The resulting cipher­a verbose homophonic substitution cipher I call the Naibbe cipher­can be done entirely by hand with 15th-century materials, and when it encrypts a wide range of Latin and Italian plaintexts, the resulting ciphertexts remain fully decipherable and also reliably reproduce many key statistical properties of the Voynich Manuscript at once. My results suggest that the so-called “ciphertext hypothesis” for the Voynich Manuscript remains viable, while also placing constraints on plausible substitution cipher structures.



from Schneier on Security https://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2025/12/substitution-cipher-based-on-the-voynich-manuscript.html

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

KnowBe4 - Scam Of The Week: "When Users Add Their Names to a Wall of Shame"

Image
Eric Howes , KnowBe4 Principal Lab Researcher, found out about another insidious bad guy trick: " If you work in IT there has undoubtedly come a dark moment when you wondered to yourself just who among your employee users would be gullible enough to click through a phishing email and potentially bring down your organization. from KnowBe4 Security Awareness Training Blog https://blog.knowbe4.com/when-users-add-their-names-to-a-wall-of-shame
Read more

The Hacker News - Phishing Campaign Hits 80+ Orgs Using SimpleHelp and ScreenConnect RMM Tools

An active phishing campaign has been observed targeting multiple vectors since at least April 2025, with legitimate Remote Monitoring and Management (RMM) software as a way to establish persistent remote access to compromised hosts. The activity, codenamed VENOMOUS#HELPER, has impacted over 80 organizations, most of which are in the U.S., according to Securonix. It shares overlaps with clusters from The Hacker News https://thehackernews.com/2026/05/phishing-campaign-hits-80-orgs-using.html
Read more

KnowBe4 - Phishing Campaigns Abuse AI Workflow Automation Platforms

Image
Threat actors are abusing agentic AI automation platforms to deliver malware and send phishing emails, according to researchers at Cisco Talos. The researchers observed attackers using n8n, a legitimate platform that automates workflows in web apps and services like Slack, GitHub, Google Sheets, and others. from Human Risk Management Blog https://blog.knowbe4.com/phishing-campaigns-abuse-ai-workflow-automation-platforms
Read more