(See slide #9 in "Slide Show" mode to see the electricity flow in the animated and anatomically correct Enigma
wiring diagram!
Or click here.)
The Enigma machine was invented over 100 years ago, and it proved to be quite an ingenious invention! This was one of
the first cipher devices in history to use electricity to encode a message, which was a giant leap in technology from
the manual cipher methods of the day. The brute cryptographic strength of the Enigma gave the Germans the utmost
confidence in the secrecy of their messages during World War II. While this confidence was logical and justified, it
later became their downfall because they refused to believe the evidence that the enemy was reading their messages!
The story of the Allies overcoming the odds and breaking the Enigma is a story of innovation, intrigue, and deception;
which significantly shortened the war and ushered in the age of computers. The success of cracking the Enigma was kept
secret for 41 years, despite tens of thousands people working on the effort in the UK and US. This secrecy is
especially incredible for us living in the age of the internet, WikiLeaks and Edward Snowden. Over 35,000 Enigma
machines were manufactured, but only 380 are known to exist today.
The search for the world's oldest surviving cipher devices has never been systematically pursued. Part of the reason is the secret nature of these
devices means that few have survived and some of the surviving examples may be stored in museums or other collections and not recognized as cipher
devices at all.
Prior to this undertaking, the oldest known cipher device was a Vigenere disk made by Nicholas Bion of France in hte late 1600 to early 1700s. This
original research resulted in the identification of 6 earlier cipher devices, with the oldest device from King Henry II of France and dated to 1547-59,
150 years older than the previously recognized oldest cipher device!
This is the story of the invention and history of the cylinder cipher, starting with the c.1795 invention by Thomas Jefferson. This is a
simple, user-friendly, and cryptographically strong cipher device for its time and was in use for over 160 years. We have evidence of the
creative spark from Thomas Jefferson and Parker Hitt which brought about their independent inventions. The acceptance of the M-94 into the
US military after WW1 is a story of deception involving the titans of early US cryptology; Joseph Mauborgne, William Friedman, and Herbert
Yardley.
The invention of the one-time pad was incorrectly attributed to the wrong inventor for almost 100 years, until
the original inventor was discovered in 2011. This follows a long tradition in cryptology of giving credit to
the wrong inventor. Although the one-time pad is famous for being unbreakable, three historic examples will
show three different ways in which this unbreakable cipher device was broken, with devastating results.
Cryptology played a significant role in the Civil War, however, history has given that role little consideration.
The Civil War was the first major war which used telegraphy over wires and through the air via visual wigwag flags.
This new technology gave the generals and even political leaders much more control of the battlefield strategy. This
was the first war where signals could be readily intercepted, so cryptanalysis was a critical contributor to the
final outcome.
Why does key space matter? It is often, and correctly, claimed that key space does not give a good indication
of the strength of a cipher system, especially the historic machines we will explore in this presentation.
An understanding of key space does, however, unlock a deeper understanding of how a cipher machine
works. The key space of a cipher machine even gives an insight into the mind of the inventor, codebreaker, and
user.
Knowing the tradeoffs between ease-of-use, cryptologic strength, manufacturing complexity, user errors,
etc. tells us why specific decisions were made in the design and use of these cipher machines. 35 historic cipher
machines will be deconstructed to show the contribution to the key space of each component. All key spaces will
be shown with the same assumptions.
The story of the secret "Gemtlemen's Agreement" between Boris Hagelin and William Friedman of the NSA had huge consequences for the scores of
countries who relied on the Hagelin pin and lug cipher devices. This secret NSA "backdoor" into the C-52 was in place for almost 40 years before
being publicly revealed by Iran after they kidnapped the Hagelin salesman and collected a million dollar ransom.
This is the story of the ingenuity and intrigue of 2000 years of military cipher technology, starting with Julius Caesar and continuing
today with modern public key cryptography. All the major historical categories of cipher technology will be explored as the battle of wits
between codemakers and codebreakers has continued to escalate.
