Christopher Love (1618–1651) was a Welsh Presbyterian minister and political activist who lived through the turbulent years of the English Civil War. After becoming involved in secret negotiations with the exiled Stuart court, he was convicted of treason and beheaded on Tower Hill in London on 22 August 1651.

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I have already mentioned on this blog that September 2026 is likely to go down in the history of codebreaking. Over the past few weeks, several long-unsolved cryptograms have been deciphered with the help of artificial intelligence.

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September 2026 will definitely go down in the history of codebreaking. Never before have so many unsolved cryptograms been deciphered in such a short period of time. The culprit, of course, is AI.

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Artificial intelligence is currently enjoying a remarkable run in the world of cryptanalysis. Hardly a week goes by without a new claim that an old cipher has been solved with the help of an AI model. Unfortunately, not every one of these announcements withstands closer scrutiny.

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Back in the days of my former Cipherbrain blog, I maintained a list of the 50 most important unsolved cryptograms. Several have been solved since then.

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Blog reader John Haas from Austria has drawn my attention to today’s topic.

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Blog reader Brent Lakes kindly informed me about an interesting unsolved crypto mystery. It appears on the final page of a book about the CIA.

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This autumn, the Secret Communication exhibition will open its doors for the fifth time in Duivendrecht, a town just outside Amsterdam. If you have an interest in cryptography, this event is well worth a visit.

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On September 3, 2026, US researcher Eric Lu announced that he had successfully factored RSA-260, an RSA challenge number consisting of 260 decimal digits or 862 bits. This surpasses the previous factoring record, RSA-250 (829 bits), which dated back to 2020. The achievement marks the largest RSA challenge number ever factored.

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Regular readers of my publications may remember that I have written several times about the murder of eleven-year-old Carlie Brucia. This case also has a cryptologic angle.

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