"Substitution encryption is a simple way to decipher messages, but these codes are very easy to crack." except in this case the Enigma was more of a mechanical one-time-pad that without possession of it, intercepting the daily cypherkey was useless
Posted on 03/22/2021 10:36:24 AM PDT by PAUL09
Nazi Operated Enigma Machine Retrieved In Baltic Sea
Centuryâs long lost-quintessential mechanical encryption machine-the Enigma code machine was recovered in the cold Baltic Sea in Europe nearly 75 years after its drastic beneficial purpose had been served during the second world war.
Having been said that during the ending period of World War II, the machine was abandoned deep into the sea by German to keep it out of reach of the allies. WHAT IS AN ENIGMA CODE? The Enigma code machine. ( image source )
Enigma machines also used a form of substitution encryption. Substitution encryption is a simple way to decipher messages, but these codes are very easy to crack. The Caesar cipher is a good example of a substitution encryption scheme. The Caesar cipher transfers several positions for each letter of the alphabet.
For example, A Caesar cipher with a shift of 1 would encode P as a Q, and Z as an A, and many more. Similarly with a shift of 5 would encode A as F, M as R, and so on.
"Substitution encryption is a simple way to decipher messages, but these codes are very easy to crack." except in this case the Enigma was more of a mechanical one-time-pad that without possession of it, intercepting the daily cypherkey was useless
I’d give it a good home.
I believe Ozzy Osbourne has one of these machines. (Yes that Ozzy! He is a WW2 history nut and has quite a collection of items.
Allies captured one from a disabled Uboat.during the war and broke the code.
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The Enigma code was not easy to descript. It was extreme difficult.
One of the keys to breaking the code was when one of the decoders over heard two secretaries discussing the fact that one of the German encoders always included, “Heil Hitler” at the end of every message. That was a big help when the British started having success in deciding messages.
By the end of the war, the British were able to decode the messages in real time.
Thank God for the bomb 💣. (Ozzy song)
There were two Enigma Machines, one for the army and one for the navy. The naval code was tougher to break than the army code.
The Allies cracked both the German and Japanese codes. This was instrumental in defeating Germany and Japan. The intelligence was particularly important early in the war when the information turned critical battles. The Battle of Midway may have been lost without the information provided by deciphered Japanese messages. Most of Rommel’s supplies in North Africa never reached him because the British knew exactly how and when they were coming. they attacked accordingly. If Rommel had been properly resupplied and reinforced, the German probably would have seized the Suez canal. Neither the Germans nor the Japanese became aware that their codes were broken.
but the Poles laid the groundwork and are rarely credited.
From "The Code Book: The Secret History of Codes and Codebreaking, by Simon Singh. 2002" "When in comes to the German ENIGMA code of WWII, and in contrast to some English-language books on this subject, Singh gives credit squarely where it is due. He traces the Polish successes with code-breaking, beginning with the cracking of Russian codes by the Biuro Szyfrow (the Bureau of Ciphers) during the 1920 Polish-Bolshevik War. (p. 144). In the years before WWII, a Polish team of mathematicians headed by Marian Rejewski recognizably solved the ENIGMA (p. 155). The Poles were ten years ahead of anyone else in this field (p. 160). The later successes of the British at Bletchley relied on Rejewski’s work (p. 170), and followed the lead of the Poles. (p. 243). Alan Turing followed Rejewski’s strategy. (p. 171)."
Rejewski was Jewish as was most of his team.
I think the Navy machine had an extra code wheel.
More than 1, I think. The Brits captured U-559 while the US later captured U-505. There may have been some surface vessels carrying Enigma that got grabbed too.
Wasn’t the Turing guy a homosexual?
The weakness of all substitution ciphers, even clever rolling substitution ciphers like enigma generated, is that similar input produced similar - but not identical output. The similarities being sufficient that with the help of Turing’s “bombe” and very clever language analysts, the code could be broken, and was. The fact that military messaging contained similar text day after day helped the allies break it.
Had the Germans know of modern RSA type encryption, codebreaking wouldn’t have been possible and Alan Turing would have just been famous for all the other genius stuff he did.
The Kriegsmarine added a 4th rotor in February 1942 which blinded the code breakers at Bletchely Park until the RN captured the Enigma from U-559 that October.
Yes, so? He pretty much invented the computer.
Exactly. There were never enough search planes and subs to watch the expanse of the Mediterranean day & night. But if you cracked the sailing schedule you could route your searches to the appropriate areas. And just to ‘throw them off’ you allow yourself to be seen searching other areas as well.
According to the movie “The Imitation Game”, Alan Turing’s created an early computer that figure out the daily code the Germans had. Because the words “weather” and “Heil Hitler” were in every message, they were able to use the computer to break the daily code. Then, from that, Turing used a mathematical formula that would give the Allies as much intelligence from Enigma possible without alerting the Nazis that their code was broken. Fascinating movie.
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