>> This episode of the Modern Rogue
brought to you by NordVPN.
>> Go to nordvpn.com/rogue
and get 75% off a three year plan.
Use the code, rogue!
R-O-G-U-E >> That's a very big discount.
It's 2.99 a month >> It's huge!
>> Also, you know what? Heck, use that code,
get a free month on us.
>> Look at him.
>> You're welcome. >> Yeah.
When you were a kid, did you ever create your own language?
>> Yes, yes, and I'm not proud of it.
>> Oh. Oh, really?
>> I came up with my own sign language.
>> Are you the Zodiac killer?
>> No, me and my buddies figured out, it'll be like,
"How about 'can' because this looks like a can.
"Can you play today?
"That's a sunrise."
[aggressively dismissive] Just dumb, it's dumb, I was a dumb kid.
[through laughter] >> This is so much better than I thought.
[stifled laughing]
I want to learn it and try to communicate with you. >> [bleep] you. [bleep] you.
>> Like the ape in Congo.
>> [beep] you.
[laughter]
[deep synthetic rumble]
[electrical pop] [gentle vinyl static]
[rising chime]
>> Okay, Brian, how familiar are you
with methods of encryption used during the Cold War?
>> Dr. James Grime, he talked to us about the Enigma machine.
[gentle vinyl static] Truly random algorithmic encoding and
how it was cracked in part,
because they realized that you couldn't eliminate
the human element and, in general, reports would probably
end with the words "Heil, Hitler."
So, knowing that,
that gave them a little bit of a clue to figure out
the algorithm from there and that's how Enigma got cracked.
I know that there are book codes.
I want to say that it was the bible.
[papers sliding] Benedict Arnold used a book code
where he would just send a bunch of numbers
and the idea was page whatever,
paragraph whatever, word whatever,
and then--but the bible was the book
that was the cipher to unlock everything.
>> JASON: But you had to have a specific version of the bible
and everything, that's the key of it
is that both parties have to have the exact same thing
that they're starting from.
>> Correct. Right.
>> And it's interesting that you say something
about randomness, because that is the key
to a lot of cryptography.
What is truly random, right?
>> And even now, it's beguiling us,
when it comes to computer stuff,
we were only able to do pseudorandom number generators
on computers that still will have a bias
to one side or the other.
For example, you look at the spread
of randomly generated numbers,
and if it's perfectly even, that alone might be a bias.
For example, in nature, normal distribution of numbers,
the first digit in a number,
whether it's the population of a city, the mass of a planet,
area of a forest, length of a river,
they all tend to start with a one,
[shuffling papers] most often, then a two, then three, then after that it falls off so starkly
but just, in general, those numbers tend to start
with one, two, or three.
>> Fascinating, because truly random numbers
are hard to generate, right?
You have to in some cases study like radioactive emissions
to get truly random numbers based on the decay.
But even RNGs included in common programming languages
aren't truly random.
They're based on algorithms that people are creating.
>> Right. >> So if you can find the patterns in those,
the non-randomness, that greatly increases
the enemy's ability to crack your code.
>> So one time pads, if I remember correctly,
the stories were that it was hard to get people to insist on
actually doing a lottery-style bingo, pulling out one thing--
because the temptation is,
fill this in with a bunch of numbers
and then if you just use your mind, you'll be like,
"I don't know, six, seven, five, two, six, one, one."
That seem a pretty random.
We have a human bias that we would never think to go,
"One, one, one, one, one, one, one."
But, that might actually happen if your truly randomly
grabbing balls out of a bin.
>> Exactly, and so if you have a one time pad
that is a very lo-fi method of communicating
with someone in the field.
One time pads were used a lot during World War 2.
They came about in the late 19th century,
but they been refined as everyone started
to realize just how important truly
random numbers were in cryptography.
>> So we talked a little bit about this
on the number stations.
[gentle vinyl static] What you want is the ability to say something out loud,
that the whole world can hear
but will only have meaning to one person.
And so one time pads are basically theoretically
perfectly random collections of numbers and letters
that act as a key, such that
only two people have it in the world,
and it's only active for a particular time,
or on a particular day, at a particular appointment,
and that both parties use it to encode and then decode
and then destroy it,
and then nobody has any frame of references
to figure out what was said.
>> Exactly, now the one time pad key
will look something like this,
[feint rapid digital whirring] where we have a bunch of different messages.
♪ [mellow ethereal beat] Now, I don't know who generated this
♪ [mellow ethereal beat] or exactly how random these are.
And again the more random they are,
the more airtight it's going to be.
But you have a number of these messages, right?
Now you're only going to use one of these
and your only going to use it once.
>> Okay so, forgive me, this doesn't look like a cipher.
Are these actual message that are encoded?
>> No, these are not messages, this is your key.
When someone out in the field sends you a message,
you're going to use your first key.
>> Okay.
>> And then once you've decoded that message that they sent you,
[fire whoosh] you burn this.
>> Yeah, but how do I translate
this random bunch of letters into something else?
>> Okay, we have a little cheat sheet here.
>> BRIAN: Okay. >> JASON: Now there's nothing special about this, right?
Its just an alphanumeric grid.
You got A through 9, here.
And then A through 9, going vertically as well. >> BRIAN: Sure.
>> JASON: This is just to help you decrypt.
Here's a message
[keyboard clacking] I have for you. >> Right.
>> Using this key.
>> The very first one, message one?
>> Exactly, now this key, you have to have a copy
and I have to have a copy.
>> Correct.
>> No one else should have a copy, right?
And so the trickiest part, to this entire thing
is getting this to you,
and making sure that it's not intercepted.
>> Okay. >> Because if it's intercepted, its done. Right?
>> Sure. Oh I get it, I get it, so since we have this grid,
that's A through 9 and this grid that's A through 9,
and this is all laid out,
my guess is, we combine, what you send me with what I know.
>> Exactly, you've got to start from the right side
and the right direction, right?
So here, you're going to start with D,
because your first one here on your first message is D.
>> BRIAN: Got it. So you begin with the one time pad.
>> JASON: So you've got your D here,
and then go over to J here, actually.
>> BRIAN: [surprised] Oh, that's not what I thought at all. Okay.
>> JASON: Yeah, because if you look, this one has a little
handy sending and receiving code right here.
>> BRIAN: I see, so this is the code, we go to the input
and then we go up and what we find is the letter.
So in this case, first letter has to be G.
>> JASON: Correct. >> BRIAN: Okay, the L
from the next one, and we go down to L,
and we're going to go over
to the next part of our message which is 2.
Then I go up and it's R.
>> JASON: Correct. >> BRIAN: All right, okay. There you go, to I...
Grime--Grimey? Frank Grimey Grimes.
U. >> JASON: I think I made this one too easy.
>> I go up, I get L.
Oh dude!
[laughs] >> Right?
>> All right hold on.
>> You just got an order 66, my friend.
[laughter]
>> BRIAN: And then there's another L.
All right, it's clearly
[keyboard clacking] [speech elongated to the timing of the text] grilled cheese.
>> Correct, take a look at this
and note what I think is kind of remarkable about it.
About such a really pretty simple cipher, right?
>> Yeah sure.
>> We've got J2VUOS, and so we've got L
for U. >> And then L again.
>> And then L for an O.
And then you've got a double E.
Because double letters, whenever you're cracking a cipher,
double letters are something--
or individual letters. >> Those are big clues.
>> Those are big clues, but in this case,
it doesn't work because you got
two Es represented by a G, and then a 2.
>> And you didn't even have to be clever and say like,
"Well, I'm going to use a different way to do an L this time."
You just followed the algorithm
and you've got what looks like total random nonsense
in order to produce that.
>> Exactly, now you have cracked this one
using grilled cheese. So this, right here...
>> Is now burned. >> This is done.
The guy broadcasting the encoded message to you
over a number station and everything,
he will destroy this, and you will destroy this.
Next time you get a message from him, you use this.
Its crucial, again, that this is random
that no one gets their hands on this
and that you do not reuse this.
>> Dude that's fantastic, this is a diabolical solution
that it does seem too have some limitations.
Both parties have to have the exact same one time pad.
They have to be synchronized,
if either party have their pad copied or stolen,
then you're going to have a bad day.
I suppose also, you're fighting the fact that
the one time pad, it has to be absolutely crucial
that it's truly random.
You can't rely on any human biases.
>> Well listen, all codes are built by people, right?
So they're only airtight as the person who defined it,
even if it's generated by a computer,
it's using an algorithm that was written by a person.
So there's going to be problems with it
but this is still one of the easiest, most lo-fi
and airtight ones that you can find.
And what I love about it is that, anybody can do it.
We just did it right now over the course of like ten minutes.
I think we should build a secret communication network.
>> That sounds like work, but yes, fine. Fine.
It'll all say "grilled cheese."
[laughter] Illuminati, confirmed.
>> The "Grilled Cheese Association."
>> Hearthstone.
[laughter]
>> Its all just Hearthstone tips,
our entire secret network. >> Shhh! You're going to ruin my new podcast, stop.
>> Brian, you have a new experience with Nord,
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[off guard laughter]
>> We come out here on the deck
and we just talk about Nord sometimes.
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That's the first thing I check everyday,
but I didn't realize that it categorizes that
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>> Yes it does. >> So, because I'm like, "attach me somewhere,"
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So I saw all of the American news through the lens
of people living in England.
They keep saying like,
"What candidate Jeep Jop says about Donald Trump..."
And I'm like, "Who's candidate Jeep Jock?"
And I realize that they have elections out in England.
>> They do.
>> It was amazing to be automatically fed news
from a totally different perspective.
>> Yeah you don't have to hunt for it.
You just select and say,
"Oh, I'm from this part of the globe."
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"you're in Scotland, when you're in Iceland,
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>> It's fantastic and plus, there is, of course, the security stuff.
The only VPN to get five out of five, perfect score at PC Mag.
>> And it got through the Great Wall of China.
That's not even right.
>> The firew--
>> The Great Firewall of China.
I was about to say, you're thinking of David Copperfield.
>> Yeah, that's what it is.
So, go to Nordvpn.com/rogue
That's R-O-G-U-E
and get 75% off a three year plan
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-- CC BY BIZARRE MAGIC --
[quietly] >> JASON: Take your clothes off.
[muffled laughter] >> God dammit.
>> It feels good, you can just surf,
and not have to worry about a thing. >> It's the internet, it's not appropriate.
>> I do it. >> It's not going to be good.
[radio static and wind]
[defensively] >> In my own home.
I mean in Starbucks.
Not the same Starbucks, you'll get kicked out.
Okay, it's a bus station.
[chuckles] It's a bus station.
[ashamed but relieved] Truth time.