Events

If you’d like to meet other people interested in codebreaking, listen to interesting talks about vintage crypto systems, give a talk yourself, or maybe even meet the authors of this book in person, maybe try one of the following events:

  • Symposium on Cryptologic History: This biennial event hosted by the NSA is the most important international event on historical encryption and codebreaking. It takes place near Fort Meade, Maryland, the location of NSA Headquarters outside Washington, D.C.
  • Charlotte International Cryptologic Symposium: This biennial conference (currently on hiatus) takes place in Charlotte, North Carolina, with a focus on encryption machines. Many crypto-collectors converge here to show off their prized Enigmas and other devices.
  • ACA Convention: The American Cryptogram Association (ACA) hosts a yearly convention, which takes place at changing locations.
  • HistoCrypt: Annual European conference on the history of cryptology, which takes place in a different location every year.
  • Kryptos Meeting: This biennial event gathers dozens of people interested in the Kryptos sculpture and its encrypted inscription. Organized by Elonka via the Kryptos discussion group (groups.io/g/kryptos), this event always takes place in the Washington, D.C. area on the Saturday after the Symposium on Cryptologic History.

Other events that sometimes involve codebreaking topics (and where you might meet the authors of this book) are 44CON (London), Awesome Con or ShmooCon (Washington, D.C.), Def Con (Las Vegas), Dragon Con (Atlanta), PhreakNIC (Nashville), and WorldCon (varies).