Da Vinci code comes in handy
2005-03-04 07:53
Sydney - Australia's largest construction company used an encryption made famous in the best-seller The Da Vinci Code to communicate with an extortionist who has threatened to shoot workers, a report said here on Friday.
Multiplex Ltd placed a coded advertisement in The Australian newspaper in an effort to contact the extortionist after being warned that its crane drivers would be shot by snipers unless it paid a A$50m (about R240m) ransom by Tuesday.
An investigation has since been launched into the threat against the company, which has numerous overseas contracts, including reconstruction of London's Wembley stadium.
According to The Daily Telegraph, the February 19 advertisement Multiplex placed could only be cracked using the Vigenere Code, developed in 1586 and featured in Dan Brown's thriller about an ancient secret society.
The paper deciphered the message -- which read "SVGUCSK BFPTAT NSKWEUM DS MZ YXTQA - LV@JXPLBGZCJ.VTS" to read: "PROBLEM PLEASE CONTACT ME ON EMAIL AR@MULTIPLEX.BIZ" after finding the key word was a repetition of 'destroymultiplex'.
Multiplex, which built Sydney's Olympic stadium, is engaged in some of Australia's biggest building projects and has construction interests in New Zealand, the United Arab Emirates and in Britain.
Some workers walked off Multiplex sites earlier this week but all have now returned to work.