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The Science of Secrecy

The Code Challenge

Message 5

5,609

What are the two factors of this number? In other words, what two whole numbers (excluding 1 and 5,609) can you multiply together to make 5,609?

This is not deciphering as such, but it does relate to the problem of cracking an RSA encrypted message, because the security of RSA relies on the difficulty of factoring very large numbers.

Once you have found the two factors, you will see that the first digit is the same in both cases. Simply relate this digit to a letter of the alphabet in order to find the letter of the challenge. For example, if the digit is 5, then the letter in question would be the fifth letter of the alphabet, namely E.

 

Message 5 hints

What is public-key cryptography?

Code Challenge introduction

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