2026 Sandy Peterson Memorial Lecture

Kryptos: The Unsolved Enigma at the Center of CIA Headquarters

We are pleased to announce the Sandy Peterson Memorial Lecture, a signature LLSDC event designed to inspire, challenge, and connect our community.

The goal of this lecture is to offer all members of the Society an opportunity to expand their horizons both personally and professionally, continuing Sandy Peterson’s legacy of curiosity and connection.

At the center of CIA Headquarters in Langley, Virginia, stands Kryptos, a sculpture by Jim Sanborn installed in 1990. Its curved copper panels are cut with several hundred characters that form a series of encrypted messages, including a Vigenere tableau. Three of the four encrypted sections have been solved; the fourth, a 97-character passage, remains one of the most famous unsolved codes in the world. After more than 30 years unsolved, sculptor Jim Sanborn announced plans to auction the solution on his 80th birthday in November 2025.  The auction drew international attention and eventually closed at a value of approximately one million dollars.

Cryptographer Elonka Dunin, one of the few people from outside the CIA to have seen the sculpture in person, traces the history of Kryptos and the solutions to its first three sections, showing the methods that made those breakthroughs possible. Drawing on decades of involvement with the Kryptos community, she also reflects on how the puzzle has shaped her work and collaborations.

Framed for a research audience, the talk treats Kryptos as a historical problem as much as a cipher problem: how clues are found and verified, how references are tracked across sources, and how small details accumulate into usable evidence over a long-running investigation.

Sanborn’s broader body of work, including other encrypted installations, provides context for his approach to language and secrecy. Recent developments have renewed attention, including additional clues released by Sanborn.

The presentation also touches on the evolving toolkit for codebreaking. Traditional analysis remains essential, while newer computational and AI-assisted approaches can accelerate exploration but require careful validation to avoid false leads.

By examining both what has been solved and what remains elusive, the talk offers a clear view of where Kryptos stands today and why it continues to fascinate researchers and information professionals alike.

Lunch sponsored by Wolters Kluwer.

Member: Free

Non-members: $12

Please register here.