"succeeded better than he had hoped"

https://nationalinterest.org/blog/buzz/solution-to-cias-kryptos-puzzle-to-be-auctioned-off-ps-111725 > Author: Suciu (2025) > Installed in 1990, Kryptos was meant to challenge employees to break four encrypted messages. > As explained by the Associated Press, the “S-shaped copper screen” was meant to resemble “a piece of paper coming out of a fax machine,” while the CIA actually suggested it “looks like a piece of paper coming out of a computer printer.” > The sculpture contains four enigmatic messages, which the CIA explained were “each written in a different code,” described as being “important to the history of cryptography.” > The purpose wasn’t just to educate, but to entertain. Sanborn told the AP that he wanted to create something fun for those who worked at the CIA and regularly saw the piece. > At the time, codes and encoding was an esoteric subject,” Sanborn said. “I wanted it to be less so, and I wanted it to be fun. … Any artist’s goal when they make an artwork is to have the viewer’s attention for as long as possible.” > Sanborn worked for four months with a retired CIA cryptographer to ensure that the first three encrypted messages, known as K1, K2, and K3, would be quickly broken. They were easy, relatively speaking. > The CIA acknowledged in 1998 that it had cracked the codes for three sections. The solution to K1 and K2 involved using a Vigenère cipher, developed by the cryptographer Blaise de Vigenère. > K3 employed transposition, paraphrasing the quotation from British archaeologist and Egyptologist Howard Carter on the opening of the tomb of Tutankhamen.  > The fourth section, K4, was also designed to be far more challenging. Sanborn perhaps succeeded better than he had hoped; it has been more than 35 years, and so far, no one has solved it.

In november(marking the 35-year anniversary of Kryptos) he actually sold the solution for K4 at an auction. He also wrote a public letter mentioning a K5. https://www.elonka.com/kryptos/OpenLetterAug2025.html

What if its just a shitpost? What if the fourth one has *no* message? Its just a random string of letters and the solution is there is no answer/there is no message to ~~fuck with them~~ teach them a lesson in humility?

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