Umbra Ciphers

[thezeus18]

Someone posted a thread on 4chan's /x/ linking to a spreaker.com "radio station" that had recordings similar to those sent by shortwave numbers stations, except way easier to crack. They were decoded and found to contain references to real millenarian cults that were involved in acts of destruction: Order of the Solar Temple, Movement for the Restoration of the Ten Commandments, Aum Shinrikyo. This last committed a Sarin gas attack in the Tokyo subways in 1995 that killed at least 7 people and injured thousands. A gas canister labeled "Sarin" was recently (since the messages began) found in Bryansk, Russia. So we are interested. It is most likely an ARG, but an interesting one.

The latest transmission is as follows:

Code: Select all

Transcribed:

Charlie 1 umbra
Charlie 1 umbra

22 3 17 25 20 15 22 19 4 25 Papa
22 3 17 25 20 15 22 19 4 25 Papa

12 23 13 8 3 2 20 6 4 25 3 19 20 5 21 7 8 3 0 15 2 19 10 17 2 17 16 13 4 25 6 5 6 5 16 13 18 19 16 5 5 19 8 10 19 23 2 11 3 10 6 15 16 3 20 10 23 19 10 4 17 25 20 15 12 3 10 7 23 10 6 14 23 19 11 13 3 10 6 17 12 3 5 1 3 4 25 15 23 10 15 16 16 12 23 8 1 7 10 8 14 1 16 3 2 5 3 1 10 16 2 7 12 19 24 12 2 17 10 20 16 13 6 10 10 22

Charlie 1 umbra
Charlie 1 umbra
Charlie 1 umbra


Numbers to letters:

Charlie 1 umbra
Charlie 1 umbra

W D R Z U P W T E Z Papa
W D R Z U P W T E Z Papa

M X N I D C U G E Z D T U F V H I D A P C T K R C R Q N E Z G F G F Q N S T Q F F T I K T X C L D K G P Q D U K X T K E R Z U P M D K H X K G O X T L N D K G R M D F B D E Z P X K P Q Q M X I B H K I O B Q D C F D B K Q C H M T Y M C R K U Q N G K K W

Charlie 1 umbra
Charlie 1 umbra
Charlie 1 umbra

Note that in previous transmissions 8 characters followed by a spoken NATO phonetic alphabet letter were translated to "passtype [letter]", and messages with the same passtype used the same cipher.

Previous transmissions and their plaintext can be found at: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1zar ... AWpvU/edit

The IRC channel we have thus far been collaborating through is #umbra on irc.freenode.net.