Dunin, Elonka
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Elonka Dunin (; born December 29, 1958) is an American video game developer and
cryptologist This is a list of cryptographers. Cryptography is the practice and study of techniques for secure communication in the presence of third parties called adversaries. Pre twentieth century * Al-Khalil ibn Ahmad al-Farahidi: wrote a (now lost) book ...
. Dunin worked at Simutronics Corp. in
St. Louis, Missouri St. Louis ( , sometimes referred to as St. Louis City, Saint Louis or STL) is an Independent city (United States), independent city in the U.S. state of Missouri. It lies near the confluence of the Mississippi River, Mississippi and the Miss ...
from 1990–2014, and in 2015 was Senior Producer at Black Gate Games in
Nashville, Tennessee Nashville, often known as Music City, is the capital and List of municipalities in Tennessee, most populous city in the U.S. state of Tennessee. It is the county seat, seat of Davidson County, Tennessee, Davidson County in Middle Tennessee, locat ...
. She is Chairperson Emerita and one of the founders of the
International Game Developers Association The International Game Developers Association (IGDA) is a nonprofit professional association whose stated mission is to "support and empower game developers around the world in achieving fulfilling and sustainable careers." The IGDA is incorp ...
's
Online Games An online game is a video game that is either partially or primarily played through the Internet or any other computer network available. Online games are ubiquitous on modern gaming platforms, including PCs, consoles and mobile devices, a ...
group, has contributed or been editor in chief on multiple
IGDA The International Game Developers Association (IGDA) is a nonprofit professional association whose stated mission is to "support and empower game developers around the world in achieving fulfilling and sustainable careers." The IGDA is incorp ...
State of the Industry
white paper A white paper is a report or guide that informs readers concisely about a complex issue and presents the issuing body's philosophy on the matter. It is meant to help readers understand an issue, solve a problem, or make a decision. Since the 199 ...
s, and was one of the Directors of the
Global Game Jam The Global Game Jam (GGJ) is an annual distributed Game Jam, game jam. Inspired by the Nordic Game Jam, and created by Susan Gold, Ian Schreiber, Gorm Lai and Foaad Khosmood, originally developed under the IGDA, International Game Developers ...
from 2011–2014. As of 2020 she works as a management consultant at
Accenture Accenture plc is a global multinational professional services company originating in the United States and headquartered in Dublin, Ireland, that specializes in information technology (IT) services and management consulting. It was founded in 1 ...
. Dunin has published a book of exercises on
classical cryptography In cryptography, a classical cipher is a type of cipher that was used historically but for the most part, has fallen into disuse. In contrast to modern cryptographic algorithms, most classical ciphers can be practically computed and solved by hand ...
, and maintains cryptography-related websites about topics such as ''
Kryptos ''Kryptos'' is a sculpture by the United States, American artist Jim Sanborn located on the grounds of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) headquarters, the George Bush Center for Intelligence in Langley, Virginia. Since its dedication on Nove ...
'', a sculpture at the
Central Intelligence Agency The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA; ) is a civilian foreign intelligence service of the federal government of the United States tasked with advancing national security through collecting and analyzing intelligence from around the world and ...
containing an encrypted message,"Enigmatic CIA Puzzle ''Kryptos'' May Be Flawed"
NPR National Public Radio (NPR) is an American public broadcasting organization headquartered in Washington, D.C., with its NPR West headquarters in Culver City, California. It serves as a national Radio syndication, syndicator to a network of more ...
All Things Considered, April 21, 2006
and another on the world's most famous unsolved codes. She has given several lectures on the subject of cryptography,Defcon 12: Kryptos and the Cracking of the Cyrillic Projector Cipher
/ref> and according to the
PBS The Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) is an American public broadcaster and non-commercial, free-to-air television network based in Arlington, Virginia. PBS is a publicly funded nonprofit organization and the most prominent provider of educat ...
series '' NOVA scienceNOW'' she is "generally considered the leading ''Kryptos'' expert in the world." In 2010, bestselling author
Dan Brown Daniel Gerhard Brown (born June 22, 1964) is an American author best known for his Thriller (genre), thriller novels, including the Robert Langdon (book series), Robert Langdon novels ''Angels & Demons'' (2000), ''The Da Vinci Code'' (2003), '' ...
named a character, Nola Kaye, in his novel ''
The Lost Symbol ''The Lost Symbol'' is a 2009 novel written by American writer Dan Brown. It is a thriller set in Washington, D.C., after the events of ''The Da Vinci Code'', and relies on Freemasonry for both its recurring theme and its major characters. Relea ...
'' after her, in an
anagram An anagram is a word or phrase formed by rearranging the letters of a different word or phrase, typically using all the original letters exactly once. For example, the word ''anagram'' itself can be rearranged into the phrase "nag a ram"; which ...
pattern.


Early life and education

Dunin was born in
Santa Monica, California Santa Monica (; Spanish language, Spanish: ''Santa Mónica'') is a city in Los Angeles County, California, Los Angeles County, situated along Santa Monica Bay on California's South Coast (California), South Coast. Santa Monica's 2020 United Sta ...
, the older of two children to Stanley Dunin, a
Polish-American Polish Americans () are Americans who either have total or partial Polish ancestry, or are citizens of the Republic of Poland. There are an estimated 8.81 million self-identified Polish Americans, representing about 2.67% of the U.S. population, ...
mathematician A mathematician is someone who uses an extensive knowledge of mathematics in their work, typically to solve mathematical problems. Mathematicians are concerned with numbers, data, quantity, mathematical structure, structure, space, Mathematica ...
, and Elsie Ivancich, a
Croatian-American Croatian Americans or Croat Americans () are Americans who have full or partial Croatian ancestry. In 2012, there were 414,714 American citizens of Croat or Croatian descent living in the United States as per revised 2010 United States Census ...
dance
ethnologist Ethnology (from the , meaning 'nation') is an academic field and discipline that compares and analyzes the characteristics of different peoples and the relationships between them (compare cultural, social, or sociocultural anthropology). Scien ...
at
UCLA The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California, United States. Its academic roots were established in 1881 as a normal school then known as the southern branch of the C ...
. Dunin graduated in 1976 from
University High School University High School may refer to: Australia * University High School, Melbourne, Victoria Canada * University Hill Secondary School, Vancouver, British Columbia United States Arizona * University High School (Tolleson) * University High Sc ...
, and then enrolled as an undergraduate at
UCLA The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California, United States. Its academic roots were established in 1881 as a normal school then known as the southern branch of the C ...
, but dropped out near the end of her freshman year. Dunin joined the
United States Air Force The United States Air Force (USAF) is the Air force, air service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is one of the six United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. Tracing its ori ...
, working as an
avionics Avionics (a portmanteau of ''aviation'' and ''electronics'') are the Electronics, electronic systems used on aircraft. Avionic systems include communications, Air navigation, navigation, the display and management of multiple systems, and the ...
technician at
RAF Mildenhall Royal Air Force Mildenhall, or more simply RAF Mildenhall , is a Royal Air Force List of Royal Air Force stations, station located near Mildenhall, Suffolk, Mildenhall in Suffolk, England. Despite its status as a List of Royal Air Force stations, ...
in the United Kingdom and
Beale Air Force Base Beale Air Force Base (AFB) is a United States Air Force base in Yuba County, California, Yuba County, California. It is outside Linda, California, Linda, about east of the towns of Marysville, California, Marysville and Yuba City, and abo ...
in California. After choosing not to re-enlist, she studied digital electronics at
Yuba College Yuba College () is a public community college in Linda, Yuba County, California. It is part of the Yuba Community College District. The college district has an extension campus in Yuba City, California. Yuba College is one of two colleges in th ...
—a two-year
community college A community college is a type of undergraduate higher education institution, generally leading to an associate degree, certificate, or diploma. The term can have different meanings in different countries: many community colleges have an open enr ...
—but did not obtain a degree.


Career


Online games

In the 1980s, she became involved with the growing BBS culture. In 1989, while she was working as a temporary legal secretary in
Los Angeles Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of Los Angeles, ...
, this interest overlapped into the early
multiplayer A multiplayer video game is a video game in which more than one person can play in the same game environment at the same time, either locally on the same computing system (couch co-op), on different computing systems via a local area network, or ...
games, such as ''
British Legends ''Multi-User Dungeon'', or ''MUD'' (referred to as ''MUD1'', to distinguish it from its successor, ''MUD2'', and the MUD genre in general), is the first MUD. History MUD was created in 1978 by Roy Trubshaw and Richard Bartle at the Universit ...
'' on
CompuServe CompuServe, Inc. (CompuServe Information Service, Inc., also known by its initialism CIS or later CSi) was an American Internet company that provided the first major commercial online service provider, online service. It opened in 1969 as a times ...
and
Simutronics Simutronics is an American online games company whose products include '' GemStone IV'' and ''DragonRealms''. It was founded in 1987 by David Whatley, with husband and wife Tom & Susan Zelinski. The company is located in St. Louis, Missouri. ...
' ''
GemStone II ''GemStone IV'' is a multiplayer text-based online role-playing video game (often known as a MUD) produced by Simutronics. Players control characters in a high fantasy game world named "Elanthia". The first playable version of the game was known ...
'' on
GEnie GEnie (General Electric Network for Information Exchange) was an online service provider, online service created by a General Electric business, GEIS (now GXS Inc., GXS), that ran from 1985 through the end of 1999. In 1994, GEnie claimed around ...
. In 1990, Dunin moved to
St. Louis St. Louis ( , sometimes referred to as St. Louis City, Saint Louis or STL) is an independent city in the U.S. state of Missouri. It lies near the confluence of the Mississippi and the Missouri rivers. In 2020, the city proper had a populatio ...
and began working for the online game company
Simutronics Simutronics is an American online games company whose products include '' GemStone IV'' and ''DragonRealms''. It was founded in 1987 by David Whatley, with husband and wife Tom & Susan Zelinski. The company is located in St. Louis, Missouri. ...
. Simutronics launched its own website, play.net, in 1997 with Dunin as General Manager of Online Games, managing Simutronics' online community. Dunin was the product manager for ''
GemStone III ''GemStone IV'' is a multiplayer text-based online role-playing video game (often known as a MUD) produced by Simutronics. Players control characters in a high fantasy game world named "Elanthia". The first playable version of the game was known ...
'', executive producer for the ''
Hercules Hercules (, ) is the Roman equivalent of the Greek divine hero Heracles, son of Jupiter and the mortal Alcmena. In classical mythology, Hercules is famous for his strength and for his numerous far-ranging adventures. The Romans adapted the Gr ...
'' 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 Simutronics is an American online games company whose products include '' GemStone IV'' and ''DragonRealms''. It was founded in 1987 by David Whatley, with husband and wife Tom & Susan Zelinski. The company is located in St. Louis, Missouri. ...
'',
HeroEngine HeroEngine is a 3D game engine and server technology platform originally developed by Simutronics Corporation specifically for building MMO-style games. At first developed for the company's own game ''Hero's Journey'', the engine won multipl ...
, ''Fantasy University'', and ''Tiny Heroes''. She is a founding member of the
International Game Developers Association The International Game Developers Association (IGDA) is a nonprofit professional association whose stated mission is to "support and empower game developers around the world in achieving fulfilling and sustainable careers." The IGDA is incorp ...
's
Online Games An online game is a video game that is either partially or primarily played through the Internet or any other computer network available. Online games are ubiquitous on modern gaming platforms, including PCs, consoles and mobile devices, a ...
SIG 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."


Games

Dunin held a variety of production and development roles during her 24 years at Simutronics. Games that she worked on include: * ''
GemStone III ''GemStone IV'' is a multiplayer text-based online role-playing video game (often known as a MUD) produced by Simutronics. Players control characters in a high fantasy game world named "Elanthia". The first playable version of the game was known ...
'' * ''
GemStone IV ''GemStone IV'' is a multiplayer text-based online role-playing video game (often known as a MUD) produced by Simutronics. Players control characters in a high fantasy game world named "Elanthia". The first playable version of the game was known ...
'' * ''
DragonRealms Simutronics is an American online games company whose products include '' GemStone IV'' and ''DragonRealms''. It was founded in 1987 by David Whatley, with husband and wife Tom & Susan Zelinski. The company is located in St. Louis, Missouri. ...
'' * '' CyberStrike'' * ''
CyberStrike 2 ''Cyberstrike 2'' is a mech simulation video game developed by Simutronics and published by 989 Studios for Microsoft Windows. It is the sequel to '' CyberStrike''. Development The game was in development as early as July 1997.It was originally ...
'' * ''Alliance of Heroes'' (originally ''Hercules & Xena: Alliance of Heroes'') * ''Modus Operandi'' * ''Orb Wars'' * ''Fantasy University'' * '' Tiny Heroes''


Cryptography

Dunin has written books and articles about
cryptography Cryptography, or cryptology (from "hidden, secret"; and ''graphein'', "to write", or ''-logy, -logia'', "study", respectively), is the practice and study of techniques for secure communication in the presence of Adversary (cryptography), ...
, and been interviewed on radio and television about related subjects such as ''
Kryptos ''Kryptos'' is a sculpture by the United States, American artist Jim Sanborn located on the grounds of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) headquarters, the George Bush Center for Intelligence in Langley, Virginia. Since its dedication on Nove ...
'', the
Smithy Code The Smithy code is a series of letters embedded, as a private amusement, within the April 2006 approved judgement of Mr Justice Peter Smith on ''The Da Vinci Code'' copyright case. The judge publicly admitted that "I can't discuss the judgement, ...
, and
Ricky McCormick's encrypted notes The partially decomposed body of Ricky McCormick was discovered in a field in St. Charles County, Missouri on June 30, 1999. Sheriffs found two garbled hand-written notes – apparently written in secret code – in the victim's pockets, and thes ...
. 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 Hacker groups are informal communities that began to flourish in the early 1980s, with the advent of the home computer. Overview Prior to that time, the term ''hacker'' was simply a referral to any Hacker (hobbyist), computer hobbyist. The hacker ...
, and that this launched her public interest in high-profile ciphers.PhreakNIC 6 schedule
Because of the location of ''Kryptos'' on
CIA The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA; ) is a civilian foreign intelligence service of the federal government of the United States tasked with advancing national security through collecting and analyzing intelligence from around the world and ...
grounds, physical access to the sculpture is restricted. According to ''
Wired News ''Wired'' is a bi-monthly American magazine that focuses on how emerging technologies affect culture, the economy, and politics. It is published in both print and online editions by Condé Nast. The magazine has been in publication since its l ...
'', in 2002, Dunin gave a presentation to CIA analysts about
steganography Steganography ( ) is the practice of representing information within another message or physical object, in such a manner that the presence of the concealed information would not be evident to an unsuspecting person's examination. In computing/ ...
and
Al-Qaeda , image = Flag of Jihad.svg , caption = Jihadist flag, Flag used by various al-Qaeda factions , founder = Osama bin Laden{{Assassinated, Killing of Osama bin Laden , leaders = {{Plainlist, * Osama bin Lad ...
, and " 2002, Dunin was one of the lucky few who saw ryptosin person", and "she also made
rubbing Rubbing is moving an object in contact with another object. Rub, RUB, rubs or rubbing may also refer to: Arts and entertainment * ''Rub'' (album), by Peaches, 2015 * Rubbing (art), a method of recording and reproducing the texture of a surface ...
s of the text". Based on her visit, she launched the beginnings of what became a comprehensive website about the sculpture, and also became co-moderator of a
Yahoo Group Yahoo! Groups was a free-to-use system of electronic mailing lists offered by Yahoo!. Prior to February 2020, Yahoo! Groups was one of the world's largest collections of online discussion boards. It allowed members to subscribe to various grou ...
that is attempting to decipher the encrypted messages on the sculpture. In 2003, Dunin organized a team which solved the ciphers on ''Kryptoss sister sculpture, the ''
Cyrillic Projector The ''Cyrillic Projector'' is a sculpture created by American artist Jim Sanborn in the early 1990s, and purchased by the University of North Carolina at Charlotte in 1997. It is currently installed between the campus's Friday and Fretwell Build ...
''.Alt URL
/ref>Cyrillic Riddle Solved
''
Science Science is a systematic discipline that builds and organises knowledge in the form of testable hypotheses and predictions about the universe. Modern science is typically divided into twoor threemajor branches: the natural sciences, which stu ...
'', vol 302, 10 October 2003, page 224
Alt URL
/ref> When ''Kryptos'' sculptor
Jim Sanborn Herbert James Sanborn, Jr. (born November 14, 1945) is an American List of sculptors, sculptor. He is best known for creating the encrypted ''Kryptos'' sculpture at Central Intelligence Agency, CIA headquarters in Langley, Virginia. Biography S ...
chose to release information about an error on the sculpture in 2006, he contacted Dunin to make the announcement. In July 2007, Dunin appeared on the
PBS The Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) is an American public broadcaster and non-commercial, free-to-air television network based in Arlington, Virginia. PBS is a publicly funded nonprofit organization and the most prominent provider of educat ...
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'', a companion book to author
Dan Brown Daniel Gerhard Brown (born June 22, 1964) is an American author best known for his Thriller (genre), thriller novels, including the Robert Langdon (book series), Robert Langdon novels ''Angels & Demons'' (2000), ''The Da Vinci Code'' (2003), '' ...
's novel ''
The Lost Symbol ''The Lost Symbol'' is a 2009 novel written by American writer Dan Brown. It is a thriller set in Washington, D.C., after the events of ''The Da Vinci Code'', and relies on Freemasonry for both its recurring theme and its major characters. Relea ...
''. 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". In 2006, Dunin compiled a book of several hundred exercises in
classical cryptography In cryptography, a classical cipher is a type of cipher that was used historically but for the most part, has fallen into disuse. In contrast to modern cryptographic algorithms, most classical ciphers can be practically computed and solved by hand ...
, 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''. In 2013, in response to a
Freedom of Information Act Freedom of Information Act may refer to the following legislations in different jurisdictions which mandate the national government to disclose certain data to the general public upon request: * Freedom of Information Act (United States) of 1966 * F ...
request by Dunin, the
NSA The National Security Agency (NSA) is an intelligence agency of the United States Department of Defense, under the authority of the director of national intelligence (DNI). The NSA is responsible for global monitoring, collection, and proces ...
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.


Public speaking

Dunin has given talks on ''Kryptos'' and the ''Cyrillic Projector'' at the
National Security Agency The National Security Agency (NSA) is an intelligence agency of the United States Department of Defense, under the authority of the director of national intelligence (DNI). The NSA is responsible for global monitoring, collection, and proces ...
's Cryptologic History Symposium,
Def Con DEF CON (also written as DEFCON, Defcon, or DC) is a Computer security conference, hacker convention held annually in Las Vegas Valley, Las Vegas, Nevada. The first DEF CON took place in June 1993 and today many attendees at DEF CON include comp ...
,
Shmoocon ShmooCon was an American hacker convention organized by The Shmoo Group. There were typically 40 different talks and presentations on a variety of subjects related to computer security and cyberculture. Multiple events were held at the convention ...
,
Notacon Notacon (pronounced "not-a-con") was an art and technology conference which took place annually in Cleveland, Ohio from 2003 to 2014. Notacon ceased operations in 2014. The name Notacon became a bacronym for Northern Ohio Technological Advancemen ...
, PhreakNIC, and
Dragon*Con Dragon Con (previously Dragon*Con and sometimes DragonCon) is a North American multigenre convention, founded in 1987, which takes place annually over the Labor Day weekend in Atlanta, Georgia. , the convention draws attendance of over 80,000. ...
, and has also given lectures at the International Game Developers Conference. She has been invited to be a co-host on the Binary Revolution webcast three times.Episodes #78, #99 and #156
, ''Binary Revolution'', interviews by David Blake.
In October 2012, she was the guest of honor at
Archon ''Archon'' (, plural: , ''árchontes'') is a Greek word that means "ruler", frequently used as the title of a specific public office. It is the masculine present participle of the verb stem , meaning "to be first, to rule", derived from the same ...
. In 2021, she gave a
TEDx TED Conferences, LLC (Technology, Entertainment, Design) is an American-Canadian non-profit media organization that posts international talks online for free distribution under the slogan "Ideas Change Everything" (previously "Ideas Worth Sprea ...
talk on cryptography,
2000 years of ordinary secrets
.


Personal life

Dunin is a Wikipedia editor who has made tens of thousands of edits.


Works and publications

* (editor) IGDA Online Games White Paper, 2002
PDF
* (editor) IGDA Online Games White Paper, 2003
PDF
* (editor) IGDA Web & Downloadable Games White Paper, 2004
PDF
* (editor-in-chief) IGDA Persistent Worlds White Paper, 2004
PDF
* * * * * * *


References


External links

*
January 2003 Unfiction interview with Elonka Dunin
{{DEFAULTSORT:Dunin, Elonka 1958 births Living people American information and reference writers American video game designers MUD developers Recreational cryptographers People from Santa Monica, California Puzzle designers University High School (Los Angeles) alumni United States Air Force airmen Yuba College alumni Women in the United States Air Force Women video game developers American people of Croatian descent American people of Polish descent