Every year, BSidesROC does a crypto challenge. This is a cryptography based puzzle of some kind. We can’t give you the details, but we will tell you that our puzzle master is David Schuetz and you should start following him on twitter. You can start looking for clues during the event and work with David if you get stuck.
MEMO TO: Dr. Cam Hackitt Hello, Dr. Hackitt! You may be wondering why you're in such a confused and befuddled state. It's a funny story... You've developed a technology that lets you jump to different times, from Ancient Rome to the last century. Strangely, though, you always seem to be thrown into situations where lives are at stake based on the successful application of cryptography. Even stranger, though you're able to make use of modern-day technology, none of the others in the time you've jumped to can even see the laptops and tablets you have at your disposal. Furthermore, because they can't see it, they also can't see the decrypted messages. Your mission is to leap from crisis to crisis, decode each cipher, and then deliver the decoded message to your holographic assistant, Darth Null (who also has all the ciphers for you). Because of the aforementioned limits to technology, you'll need to show not only the completed solution to the cipher, but also how you derived it. Yes, this means working the entire decryption, from cipher and key generation to plaintext, on paper, and proving your work. Only then can you progress to the next crisis and, eventually, Save The World! Good luck!