Dunin has published a book of exercises on classical cryptography, and maintains cryptography-related websites about topics such as Kryptos, a sculpture at the Central Intelligence Agency containing an encrypted message,[1][4][5][6] and another on the world's most famous unsolved codes.[7] She has given several lectures on the subject of cryptography,[8][9] and according to the PBS series NOVA scienceNOW she is "generally considered the leading Kryptos expert in the world."[10] In 2010, bestselling author Dan Brown named a character, Nola Kaye, in his novel The Lost Symbol after her, in an anagram pattern.[11]
Dunin graduated in 1976 from University High School, and then enrolled as an undergraduate at UCLA, but dropped out near the end of her freshman year.[12]
In 1990, Dunin moved to St. Louis and began working for the online game company Simutronics.[13][16] Simutronics launched its own website, play.net, in 1997 with Dunin as General Manager of Online Games,[17] managing Simutronics' online community.[18][19] Dunin was the product manager for GemStone III, executive producer for the Hercules and Xena: Warrior Princess-based multiplayer game Alliance of Heroes, and worked in a variety of production and development roles on most of Simutronics' other products, including CyberStrike, Modus Operandi, DragonRealms, HeroEngine, Fantasy University, and Tiny Heroes. She is a founding member of the International Game Developers Association's Online GamesSIG and edited four of their annual White Papers on various aspects of the online game industry, such as "Web and Downloadable Games" and "Persistent Worlds."[20][21]
Games
Dunin held a variety of production and development roles during her 24 years at Simutronics. Games that she worked on include:
Dunin has written books and articles about cryptography, and been interviewed on radio and television about related subjects such as Kryptos, the Smithy Code,[22] and Ricky McCormick's encrypted notes.[23] In an interview with GIGnews.com, Dunin said that in the year 2000 she cracked the PhreakNIC v3.0 Code, an amateur cryptographic puzzle created by a hacker group, and that this launched her public interest in high-profile ciphers.[24][25] Because of the location of Kryptos on CIA grounds, physical access to the sculpture is restricted. According to Wired News, in 2002, Dunin gave a presentation to CIA analysts about steganography and Al-Qaeda, and "[i]n 2002, Dunin was one of the lucky few who saw [Kryptos] in person", and "she also made rubbings of the text".[26] Based on her visit, she launched the beginnings of what became a comprehensive website about the sculpture,[1][27] and also became co-moderator of a Yahoo Group that is attempting to decipher the encrypted messages on the sculpture.[28]
In 2003, Dunin organized a team which solved the ciphers on Kryptos's sister sculpture, the Cyrillic Projector.[13][29][30][31]
When Kryptos sculptor Jim Sanborn chose to release information about an error on the sculpture in 2006, he contacted Dunin to make the announcement.[1][27] In July 2007, Dunin appeared on the PBS program NOVA scienceNOW, as an expert on Kryptos, and in 2009, contributed two articles about the sculpture for the book Secrets of The Lost Symbol: The Unauthorized Guide to the Mysteries Behind The Da Vinci Code Sequel,[32] a companion book to author Dan Brown's novel The Lost Symbol. Dunin had assisted Brown with the research for the novel, and Brown named a character in the novel after her. The character "Nola Kaye" is an anagrammed form of "Elonka".[32][33][34]
In 2006, Dunin compiled a book of several hundred exercises in classical cryptography, which was published in the United States as The Mammoth Book of Secret Codes and Cryptograms, and in the UK as The Mammoth Book of Secret Code Puzzles. The book also includes a few details about several unsolved codes, such as Kryptos.[27]
In 2013, in response to a Freedom of Information Act request by Dunin, the NSA released documents which show the NSA became involved in attempts to solve the Kryptos puzzle in 1992, following a challenge by Bill Studeman, Deputy Director of the CIA. The documents show that by June 1993, a small group of NSA cryptanalysts had succeeded in solving the first three parts of the sculpture.[35][36]
Dunin, Elonka; Ekhall, Magnus; Hamidullin, Konstantin; Lasry, George; Schmeh, Klaus (2022). "How we set new world records in breaking Playfair ciphertexts". Cryptologia. 46 (4): 302–322. doi:10.1080/01611194.2021.1905734. S2CID238645714.
^ abcStage, Wm. (August 28, 2006). "Elonka Dunin's ability to crack codes is stuff books are made of". St. Charles County Business Record.
^"Tommarello Interview with Elonka Dunin". elonka.com. Retrieved November 13, 2008. Elonka does not have a college degree, but has a wide breadth of practical experience to draw upon. After dropping out of college, she spent six years in the Air Force as an Avionics Instruments System Specialist.
