IDTG

It’s not often that I get to combine my two passions: heraldry & cryptography. Actually, this is the first time I’ve been able to truly combine the two!

The image above is the the new seal of the United States Cyber Command (USCYBERCOM). As you’ll notice, there is heraldry and there is a string of numbers and letters along the inner gold border. You should be able to see a much clearer image here.

The blazon of the shield is relatively simple: Argent in dexter chief two swords point to chief in saltire, in sinister chief a lightning bolt in bend sinister and in base a key fesswise all Sable, a chief Or.

However, the “cool” part is the supposed secret message encrypted and written on the logo. The coded message is: 9ec4c12949a4f31474f299058ce2b22a

This, at first glance, looks like the result of a hash function and in this case (being 32 characters) it “smelled” like a MD5 hash function.

Since hash functions are only one way, this code cannot be reversed to find out what the original text is. So, this leaves us to guessing…

In this article on Wired.com, we have a clue that the code is somehow related to the “mission” of USCYBERCOM.

So, what is this “mission”? To find out, we can check the closest thing I could find to an official website, the fact sheet on USCYBERCOM on the US Strategic Command site. Here, we find that the “mission” of the Cyber Command is:

USCYBERCOM plans, coordinates, integrates, synchronizes, and conducts activities to: direct the operations and defense of specified Department of Defense information networks and; prepare to, and when directed, conduct full spectrum military cyberspace operations in order to enable actions in all domains, ensure US/Allied freedom of action in cyberspace and deny the same to our adversaries.

So, let’s see what happens if we MD5 hash this text. What’s there to lose, right?

Lo and behold! The result is 9ec4c12949a4f31474f299058ce2b22a !

I cracked the code!

Then I go to Wikipedia to gather info for the blog post and see that it’s not really secret. After recovering from the blow to my ego, I revamped the structure of this post. For the record, the original would’ve been Pulitzer Prize worthy!

A new site has been added to the small world of heraldry blogs and this one is dedicated to Catalan heraldry.

The arms above are those of the author of the blog, Javier de Crüilles, a native Spaniard residing in the capital of Catalonia, Barcelona.

The blog, aptly named “Heráldica Catalana” is hosted here: http://heraldicacatalana.blogspot.com/

Heraldry is in no way as popular as the news on the celebrity du jour’s hook up or break up but it does have its loyal following.

This blog is one of the smaller ones on the internet and even if it never will have the readership of, say, TMZ, it still gets its fair share of communication from various visitors.

In the past 19 months or so of existence on the web, the majority of the messages I’ve received through this site can be classified in certain set categories.

This got me thinking about writing a few posts on the most common themes of the messages received as it may be of interest to someone.

So, stay tuned

It was announced on Wednesday that the St. Peter Codex, perhaps the most important heraldic endeavor in centuries, has been terminated.

The project’s objective was to create an illuminated manuscript with the armorial of all the Popes. The entire project was to be hand painted and illuminated by the master of the art Andy Jamieson with the consulting supervision of the expert on the heraldry of the Catholic Church, Fr. Guy Selvester.

It was a very ambitious project that, if completed, would have been a masterpiece! The plan also called for a formal presentation to His Holiness the Pope in a ceremony in the Vatican.

The reasons for termination were primarily, as expected, financial. There just weren’t enough patrons/donors that had the will and funds to contribute to this endeavor.

However, another big reason for the failure of the project was the unchivalrous behavior of so many members of orders of “chivalry”. In other words, there were members of certain orders that flat out refused to participate if members of another order were.

It appears that high-school clique antics are alive and well, way beyond reaching adulthood.

I’m happy to report that what, in my opinion, is the best Spanish language blog out there is back online!

That blog is, of course, the Blog de Heráldica maintained by José Juan Carrión Rangel

Back in February I had reported the owner’s decision to retire from blogging but, it looks like his enormous readership convinced him to return.

I, for one, am glad that it’s back up!