Brilliant, you’ve managed to open the gate!
Next up is
the main door into the lair. This door has an electronic
lock that you’ll need to find the passcode for.
You can see that the hacker has left themselves a note
next to the locked door. Maybe they use this to remind
themselves of the passcode in case they ever forget?
The text looks a bit funny, maybe it is an encryption of
the secret code. Encryption is a method of hiding
information within text.
You can try decrypting, which means finding the hidden
information in the note by following these instructions:
1. Remove punctuation and spaces from the message
2. Break the message into groups of 5 letters.
3. Remove groups of letters that are all lower case.
4. Write the message out 5 letters at a time replacing
capital letters with ‘a’ and lowercase letters with ‘b’.
5. Look up each group of 5 ‘a’s and ‘b’s in turn (the
ciphertext) and write down the letter from the table
(the plaintext).
You can check if your solution is correct by entering it
into the black lock labelled 2.
Plaintext Ciphertext Plaintext Ciphertext
A aaaaa N abbab
B aaaab O abbba
C aaaba P abbbb
D aaabb Q baaaa
E aabaa R baaab
F aabab S baaba
G aabba T baabb
H aabbb U babaa
I abaaa V babab
J abaab W babba
K ababa X babbb
L ababb Y bbaaa
M abbaa Z bbaab
ThiS Note has no
signifiCancE. don’t pay
attentioN TO it or the
CApITal letters iN
pArticular.
