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Enigmatic CIA Puzzle 'Kryptos' May Be Flawed

The Kryptos puzzle at CIA headquarters in Langley, Va. Copyright James Sanborn. Used with permission.
The Kryptos puzzle at CIA headquarters in Langley, Va. Copyright James Sanborn. Used with permission.

A sculptural cryptogram at the CIA's headquarters that has intrigued people for years may have flaws in its design, says its creator. For more than a decade, professional cryptologists and amateur code breakers have been trying to decipher Kryptos, an encrypted sculpture at the CIA headquarters in Langley, Va.

But it turns out that the artist made the challenge a bit more complicated than he intended. Melissa Block talks with James Sanborn, the sculptor who recently realized a mistake in the piece, and Elonka Dunin, a cryptologist who maintains a website on the sculpture.

Copyright 2022 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.