Cryptography is one of the fundamental aspects of
information security. It is used to encrypt or encode messages so that their
content may not be read, modified, or hidden by an unauthorized third party. In
this way, it helps information to meet three key requirements to be secured:
confidentiality, integrity, and availability.
This method takes place in most of our daily
activities. Think, for example, when you send an email – if the email provider
did not use encryption techniques, the content might be intercepted and read by
unknown people.
Let´s take another example, such as a message sent
via WhatsApp. This app, as with many others, uses encryption. In fact, the implementation of end-to-end encryption was completed in 2016,
which now means that only the sender and receiver may read the communication.
As its co-founders noted in April:
“No one can see inside that message. Not cybercriminals. Not hackers. Not
oppressive regimes. Not even us. End-to-end encryption helps make communication
via WhatsApp private – sort of like a face-to-face conversation.”
Although this method may seem to be new, the
concept is literally over one thousand years old. Do you know how a
hieroglyphic was read the first time? By using the Rosetta Stone, a piece of stone containing the script of a
decree issued by an Egyptian emperor in his own language and in Greek; since
the latter was a commonly known language, it was used to transcribe the message
into Egyptian and worked as a key to decipher it. This is the reason it was
considered a milestone in the history of civilization, language and encryption.
However, as you may also imagine, it was not the only one.
Encryption is popular in its own way today. It is a
technique that does not only date back to the history of civilization, but also
to spies and security agencies, among others.. With this in mind, in this
article we would like to tell you about three cases in which encryption
features as a “key” in the film industry.
#1 The Imitation Game
This 2014 film tells the story of Alan Turing, the pioneering 20th century
British mathematician and logician who was instrumental in developing computer
science. In the UK, the security services hired him for a significant mission:
to work out how Enigma machine worked, so that they could understand the
encoded message system used by the Nazis.
We then see how Turing prepared a team of
mathematicians and cryptologists in order to analyze the machine, something
totally mysterious to the Allies. After much work, and some luck, Turing and
his colleagues work out how the machine worked and manage to intercept the
German communications. The rest is history; Turing’s work became immortal for
being key to diverting the German advance, and helped the Allies to win the
second world war.
#2 Zodiac
Zodiac is a 2007 mystery-thriller by David Fincher, based on
the story of a notorious serial killer in the US. Known as the Zodiac Killer
(as he called himself). The killer was mostly active during the decades of 1960
and 1970 around San Francisco, California. But it was not until his second
murder that he became well-known.
Zodiac was fame hungry and he courted the press. To
begin with, he sent a letter to the main newspapers in San Francisco,
introducing himself and leaving an encrypted message
without further reference. As if it was a game, the killer explained that the
encrypted messages had been sent from different locations and to different
media outlets, and that they revealed his identity. He also demanded the
publication of the messages on the front pages of the newspapers;
otherwise, he would kill more people.
In the years after this original letter, the Zodiac
Killer continued to taunt the authorities by sending letters and encrypted
messages. Although a thorough investigation was carried out, the killer was
never found. Today, the case remains one of the most popular unsolved crimes in
the US.
#3 The Da Vinci Code
The Da Vinci Code, based on Dan Brown’s novel of the same
name, was one of the most anticipated films in 2006, mainly due to the popularity
of the book: it sold more than 80 million copies and was translated to 44
languages. The important thing for us is that the story is about Robert
Langdon, professor of religious iconology and symbology, who becomes involved
in solving a crime in the Louvre Museum.
To get to the heart of the issue, Langdon must
decipher the messages and riddles left to move on to the next clue that will
take him closer to the identity of the murderer. However, what he does not know
is that in fact his search will take him near the location of one of the
biggest mysteries (or legends) in history: the Holy Grail.
Throughout the film, we can see how the professor
uses his knowledge of semiotics to decipher the multiple riddles. The most
thrilling scene is probably when he finds a Cryptex, the quintessential
encryption item, created based on Leonardo Da Vinci’s designs.
As you may see, the concept of encryption has been
used in many interesting ways along history, and also in the fiction world.
These three movies are some of many examples that have contributed to
increasingly the visibility and popularity of encryption, which used to be
reserved only for a few but today, in the digital age, it is key to protecting
our information as users in an interconnected world.