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You are the head of the cryptanalysis department, and you are pretty nervous because you have sent your best field agent, John, who also happens to be a cryptographer in your team, to find out who in your office has been selling state secrets, and today's the day he is supposed to report back. You and your team are waiting in the common room of the department, all worried. You look at everyone's face and try to gauge everyoe's reaction but fail to do so because you are a cryptanalyst not a psychologist. You walk around the room when suddenly your pager beeps, making everyone jump. You take it out, and see that it reads  :

TRACK THE INCOMING. 5 MINS.

You let everyone know what it says. The code is clear to everyone. John will be contacting through multiple channels, and you need to keep track of the order they come through, all starting in 5 minutes.

"Everybody, hands on station! I want timestamps on every incoming message through all sources, whether hard or soft. GO!" You shout. You yourself proceed to man your terminal.

Everybody does their job, and exactly 5 minutes later, a printout comes through on one of the printers:

16e46c8cebc3dc8c6073a8d87159cf1d38aedf7b5fc5f63749e0fb6d17073973eea7a4

A second later, another pops out of another printer:

9e871680fdb729dd7f391c42a30edd94fd3ddb712cc59578cc418fc4c8903cb5fb0fe3

Then a third, using another different printer:

edf32055eae75b8d66377ce845c85f1f7188c70fbac45c6381a0d78acedb16d5f23b49

A fourth:

ced8744c5164541b732491d1c5cdcff73b6ced458cc48533fed81317ce177051b357c7

A fifth:

dcd7174c4d8f8a8c93b4edcf86c1ede3b078d3b3a416305ea1d71330edf3735c997b3f

And then suddenly all goes silent. No more printouts. You still wait for a few minutes, and when nothing is heard, you all finally pour in to see what the message says.

Gibberish.

But you all are trained to look through such stuff, and although you don't find anything immediate, you all notice that everything is in hex.

You all ponder for some time, when suddenly one of the printer crackles to life. You all turn around and pick up the printout.

caesar 4 h b 32 4 7-4 flip h 70

Everyone takes a copy of the codes and start trying to decipher the messages, but no one makes any headway as to what to do. Your printers are silent for hours so you know no more messages. This must be the entirety of it.

As head of the department, you need to rise up and solve this, to save your state and find out the traitor.

Do you have it in you to find the message?

A little side note on the title : Relatively easy cipher here means that if you know the encryption, the decryption is straightforward. Not even brute forcing is required. But if not, then oh boy...

Hint 1  :

The length of the strings is a familiar number.

Hint 2 (Semi-decisive)  :

The h in the last transmission is also available as a hint in the story. Something that links the first 5 ciphers.

You are the head of the cryptanalysis department, and you are pretty nervous because you have sent your best field agent, John, who also happens to be a cryptographer in your team, to find out who in your office has been selling state secrets, and today's the day he is supposed to report back. You and your team are waiting in the common room of the department, all worried. You look at everyone's face and try to gauge everyone's reaction but fail to do so because you are a cryptanalyst not a psychologist. You walk around the room when suddenly your pager beeps, making everyone jump. You take it out, and see that it reads:

TRACK THE INCOMING. 5 MINS.

You let everyone know what it says. The code is clear to everyone. John will be contacting through multiple channels, and you need to keep track of the order they come through, all starting in 5 minutes.

"Everybody, hands on station! I want timestamps on every incoming message through all sources, whether hard or soft. GO!" You shout. You yourself proceed to man your terminal.

Everybody does their job, and exactly 5 minutes later, a printout comes through on one of the printers:

16e46c8cebc3dc8c6073a8d87159cf1d38aedf7b5fc5f63749e0fb6d17073973eea7a4

A second later, another pops out of another printer:

9e871680fdb729dd7f391c42a30edd94fd3ddb712cc59578cc418fc4c8903cb5fb0fe3

Then a third, using another different printer:

edf32055eae75b8d66377ce845c85f1f7188c70fbac45c6381a0d78acedb16d5f23b49

A fourth:

ced8744c5164541b732491d1c5cdcff73b6ced458cc48533fed81317ce177051b357c7

A fifth:

dcd7174c4d8f8a8c93b4edcf86c1ede3b078d3b3a416305ea1d71330edf3735c997b3f

And then suddenly all goes silent. No more printouts. You still wait for a few minutes, and when nothing is heard, you all finally pour in to see what the message says.

Gibberish.

But you all are trained to look through such stuff, and although you don't find anything immediate, you all notice that everything is in hex.

You all ponder for some time, when suddenly one of the printer crackles to life. You all turn around and pick up the printout.

caesar 4 h b 32 4 7-4 flip h 70

Everyone takes a copy of the codes and start trying to decipher the messages, but no one makes any headway as to what to do. Your printers are silent for hours so you know no more messages. This must be the entirety of it.

As head of the department, you need to rise up and solve this, to save your state and find out the traitor.

Do you have it in you to find the message?

A little side note on the title:

Relatively easy cipher here means that if you know the encryption, the decryption is straightforward. Not even brute forcing is required. But if not, then oh boy...

Hint 1:

The length of the strings is a familiar number.

Hint 2 (Semi-decisive):

The h in the last transmission is also available as a hint in the story. Something that links the first 5 ciphers.

You are the head of the cryptanalysis department, and you are pretty nervous because you have sent your best field agent, John, who also happens to be a cryptographer in your team, to find out who in your office has been selling state secrets, and today's the day he is supposed to report back. You and your team are waiting in the common room of the department, all worried. You look at everyone's face and try to gauge everyoe's reaction but fail to do so because you are a cryptanalyst not a psychologist. You walk around the room when suddenly your pager beeps, making everyone jump. You take it out, and see that it reads :

TRACK THE INCOMING. 5 MINS.

You let everyone know what it says. The code is clear to everyone. John will be contacting through multiple channels, and you need to keep track of the order they come through, all starting in 5 minutes.

"Everybody, hands on station! I want timestamps on every incoming message through all sources, whether hard or soft. GO!" You shout. You yourself proceed to man your terminal.

Everybody does their job, and exactly 5 minutes later, a printout comes through on one of the printers:

16e46c8cebc3dc8c6073a8d87159cf1d38aedf7b5fc5f63749e0fb6d17073973eea7a4

A second later, another pops out of another printer:

9e871680fdb729dd7f391c42a30edd94fd3ddb712cc59578cc418fc4c8903cb5fb0fe3

Then a third, using another different printer:

edf32055eae75b8d66377ce845c85f1f7188c70fbac45c6381a0d78acedb16d5f23b49

A fourth:

ced8744c5164541b732491d1c5cdcff73b6ced458cc48533fed81317ce177051b357c7

A fifth:

dcd7174c4d8f8a8c93b4edcf86c1ede3b078d3b3a416305ea1d71330edf3735c997b3f

And then suddenly all goes silent. No more printouts. You still wait for a few minutes, and when nothing is heard, you all finally pour in to see what the message says.

Gibberish.

But you all are trained to look through such stuff, and although you don't find anything immediate, you all notice that everything is in hex.

You all ponder for some time, when suddenly one of the printer crackles to life. You all turn around and pick up the printout.

caesar 4 h b 32 4 7-4 flip h 70

Everyone takes a copy of the codes and start trying to decipher the messages, but no one makes any headway as to what to do. Your printers are silent for hours so you know no more messages. This must be the entirety of it.

As head of the department, you need to rise up and solve this, to save your state and find out the traitor.

Do you have it in you to find the message?

A little side note on the title : Relatively easy cipher here means that if you know the encryption, the decryption is straightforward. Not even brute forcing is required. But if not, then oh boy...

Hint 1 :

The length of the strings is a familiar number.

You are the head of the cryptanalysis department, and you are pretty nervous because you have sent your best field agent, John, who also happens to be a cryptographer in your team, to find out who in your office has been selling state secrets, and today's the day he is supposed to report back. You and your team are waiting in the common room of the department, all worried. You look at everyone's face and try to gauge everyoe's reaction but fail to do so because you are a cryptanalyst not a psychologist. You walk around the room when suddenly your pager beeps, making everyone jump. You take it out, and see that it reads :

TRACK THE INCOMING. 5 MINS.

You let everyone know what it says. The code is clear to everyone. John will be contacting through multiple channels, and you need to keep track of the order they come through, all starting in 5 minutes.

"Everybody, hands on station! I want timestamps on every incoming message through all sources, whether hard or soft. GO!" You shout. You yourself proceed to man your terminal.

Everybody does their job, and exactly 5 minutes later, a printout comes through on one of the printers:

16e46c8cebc3dc8c6073a8d87159cf1d38aedf7b5fc5f63749e0fb6d17073973eea7a4

A second later, another pops out of another printer:

9e871680fdb729dd7f391c42a30edd94fd3ddb712cc59578cc418fc4c8903cb5fb0fe3

Then a third, using another different printer:

edf32055eae75b8d66377ce845c85f1f7188c70fbac45c6381a0d78acedb16d5f23b49

A fourth:

ced8744c5164541b732491d1c5cdcff73b6ced458cc48533fed81317ce177051b357c7

A fifth:

dcd7174c4d8f8a8c93b4edcf86c1ede3b078d3b3a416305ea1d71330edf3735c997b3f

And then suddenly all goes silent. No more printouts. You still wait for a few minutes, and when nothing is heard, you all finally pour in to see what the message says.

Gibberish.

But you all are trained to look through such stuff, and although you don't find anything immediate, you all notice that everything is in hex.

You all ponder for some time, when suddenly one of the printer crackles to life. You all turn around and pick up the printout.

caesar 4 h b 32 4 7-4 flip h 70

Everyone takes a copy of the codes and start trying to decipher the messages, but no one makes any headway as to what to do. Your printers are silent for hours so you know no more messages. This must be the entirety of it.

As head of the department, you need to rise up and solve this, to save your state and find out the traitor.

Do you have it in you to find the message?

A little side note on the title : Relatively easy cipher here means that if you know the encryption, the decryption is straightforward. Not even brute forcing is required. But if not, then oh boy...

Hint 1 :

The length of the strings is a familiar number.

Hint 2 (Semi-decisive) :

The h in the last transmission is also available as a hint in the story. Something that links the first 5 ciphers.

You are the head of the cryptanalysis department, and you are pretty nervous because you have sent your best field agent, John, who also happens to be a cryptographer in your team, to find out who in your office has been selling state secrets, and today's the day he is supposed to report back. You and your team are waiting in the common room of the department, all worried. You look at everyone's face and try to gauge everyoe's reaction but fail to do so because you are a cryptanalyst not a psychologist. You walk around the room when suddenly your pager beeps, making everyone jump. You take it out, and see that it reads :

TRACK THE INCOMING. 5 MINS.

You let everyone know what it says. The code is clear to everyone. John will be contacting through multiple channels, and you need to keep track of the order they come through, all starting in 5 minutes.

"Everybody, hands on station! I want timestamps on every incoming message through all sources, whether hard or soft. GO!" You shout. You yourself proceed to man your terminal.

Everybody does their job, and exactly 5 minutes later, a printout comes through on one of the printers:

16e46c8cebc3dc8c6073a8d87159cf1d38aedf7b5fc5f63749e0fb6d17073973eea7a4

A second later, another pops out of another printer:

9e871680fdb729dd7f391c42a30edd94fd3ddb712cc59578cc418fc4c8903cb5fb0fe3

Then a third, using another different printer:

edf32055eae75b8d66377ce845c85f1f7188c70fbac45c6381a0d78acedb16d5f23b49

A fourth:

ced8744c5164541b732491d1c5cdcff73b6ced458cc48533fed81317ce177051b357c7

A fifth:

dcd7174c4d8f8a8c93b4edcf86c1ede3b078d3b3a416305ea1d71330edf3735c997b3f

And then suddenly all goes silent. No more printouts. You still wait for a few minutes, and when nothing is heard, you all finally pour in to see what the message says.

Gibberish.

But you all are trained to look through such stuff, and although you don't find anything immediate, you all notice that everything is in hex.

You all ponder for some time, when suddenly one of the printer crackles to life. You all turn around and pick up the printout.

caesar 4 h b 32 4 7-4 flip h 70

Everyone takes a copy of the codes and start trying to decipher the messages, but no one makes any headway as to what to do. Your printers are silent for hours so you know no more messages. This must be the entirety of it.

As head of the department, you need to rise up and solve this, to save your state and find out the traitor.

Do you have it in you to find the message?

A little side note on the title : Relatively easy cipher here means that if you know the encryption, the decryption is straightforward. Not even brute forcing is required. But if not, then oh boy...

You are the head of the cryptanalysis department, and you are pretty nervous because you have sent your best field agent, John, who also happens to be a cryptographer in your team, to find out who in your office has been selling state secrets, and today's the day he is supposed to report back. You and your team are waiting in the common room of the department, all worried. You look at everyone's face and try to gauge everyoe's reaction but fail to do so because you are a cryptanalyst not a psychologist. You walk around the room when suddenly your pager beeps, making everyone jump. You take it out, and see that it reads :

TRACK THE INCOMING. 5 MINS.

You let everyone know what it says. The code is clear to everyone. John will be contacting through multiple channels, and you need to keep track of the order they come through, all starting in 5 minutes.

"Everybody, hands on station! I want timestamps on every incoming message through all sources, whether hard or soft. GO!" You shout. You yourself proceed to man your terminal.

Everybody does their job, and exactly 5 minutes later, a printout comes through on one of the printers:

16e46c8cebc3dc8c6073a8d87159cf1d38aedf7b5fc5f63749e0fb6d17073973eea7a4

A second later, another pops out of another printer:

9e871680fdb729dd7f391c42a30edd94fd3ddb712cc59578cc418fc4c8903cb5fb0fe3

Then a third, using another different printer:

edf32055eae75b8d66377ce845c85f1f7188c70fbac45c6381a0d78acedb16d5f23b49

A fourth:

ced8744c5164541b732491d1c5cdcff73b6ced458cc48533fed81317ce177051b357c7

A fifth:

dcd7174c4d8f8a8c93b4edcf86c1ede3b078d3b3a416305ea1d71330edf3735c997b3f

And then suddenly all goes silent. No more printouts. You still wait for a few minutes, and when nothing is heard, you all finally pour in to see what the message says.

Gibberish.

But you all are trained to look through such stuff, and although you don't find anything immediate, you all notice that everything is in hex.

You all ponder for some time, when suddenly one of the printer crackles to life. You all turn around and pick up the printout.

caesar 4 h b 32 4 7-4 flip h 70

Everyone takes a copy of the codes and start trying to decipher the messages, but no one makes any headway as to what to do. Your printers are silent for hours so you know no more messages. This must be the entirety of it.

As head of the department, you need to rise up and solve this, to save your state and find out the traitor.

Do you have it in you to find the message?

A little side note on the title : Relatively easy cipher here means that if you know the encryption, the decryption is straightforward. Not even brute forcing is required. But if not, then oh boy...

Hint 1 :

The length of the strings is a familiar number.