Decypering the Cyphers

"On the newly exposed face of the pyramid, a series of sixteen characters was pricisely engraved into the smooth stone":

Illustrations from Dan Brown's The Lost Symbol

"'The engrsving is indeed the Masonic cipher. However, the cleartext is meaningless..' 'It must say something.'"

"'It's a grid-based matrix, so I can run the usual - Vigenere, grilles, trellisers and so forth'".'".

Illustrations from Dan Brown's The Lost Symbol

"Although there are a few unsolved cyphers: Phaisto Disk, Dorabella Cypher, the mysterious Voynich Manuscript, this cypher might be broken yet."

Text is from the Lost Symbol, Dan Brown.

When is a Cipher a Cipher?

Again Holmes flattened out the paper upon his unused plate. I rose and, leaning over him, stared down at the curious inscription, which ran as follows:

"What do you make of it, Holmes?"

"It is obviously an attempt to convey secret information."

"But what is the use of a cipher message without the cipher?"

"In this instance, none at all."

"Why do you say 'in this instance'?"

"Because there are many ciphers which I would read as easily as I do the apocrypha of the agony column: such crude devices amuse the intelligence without fatiguing it. But this is different. It is clearly a reference to the words in a page of some book. Until I am told which page and which book I am powerless."

The Tragedy of Birlstone, The Valley Of Fear, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle