Cryptography and Cryptanalysis – Military Applications From Antiquity to the End of World War II
Join our motivated more-or-less informed amateurs Hugo Tarrida and John Salomon for the latest in our State of (Cyber)War series, part of CyAN’s Secure in Mind video and podcast network. This is part one of a two-part series; part II discusses military crypto applications and techniques throughout the Cold War until the present day.
Notes and Links:
As always, we haven’t read all of these in their entirety, and the Wikipedia links are provided as-is, and only meant as a starting point for someone interested in more than just casual information.
06:09 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caesar_cipher
07:13 Vigenère cipher – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vigen%C3%A8re_cipher
07:31 The Code Book – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Code_Book
07:50 Applied Cryptography – https://www.schneier.com/books/applied-cryptography/
08:30 Painting: Urgent for Capetown, by Stuart Brown – https://skipperpress.com/portfolio/gallery-prints/urgent-for-capetown/
08:35 Heliographs are neat-o: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heliograph
09:20 For some information about the kerfuffle around how this was planned: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/England_expects_that_every_man_will_do_his_duty
09:45 Cryptanalysis of Spanish Civil War Ciphers – https://informatik.rub.de/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/BA-Thesis_Jose-Luis-Benitez-Moreno.pdf
10:41 Look up Oskar Hutier, if you’re interested in that sort of thing
11:42 The cryptanalyst in question was Thomas Phillips/Phelippes, who served under Sir Francis Walsingham – arguably one of the first to hold the office of ‘M’, if you’re into historical espionage documentaries. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Phelippes – to read more on the plot to kill Elizabeth I whose uncovering led to the execution of Mary Queen of Scots: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Babington_Plot
11:52 Giovanni Soro. John’s notes suck. https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/cryptography-renaissance-venice
12:45 And beyond. CSS Virginia (US Confederate ironclad) supposedly had a turning radius of 1.6km and took approximately 45 minutes to complete a 180 degree turn. Zippy boi.
13:54 Abū Yūsuf Yaʻqūb ibn ʼIsḥāq aṣ-Ṣabbāḥ al-Kind (“al-Kindi”) – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Al-Kindi. See also Ibn Adlan – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ibn_Adlan. Check out Contribution of Muslims and European in the Evolution of
Cryptology: A case Study – https://powertechjournal.com/index.php/journal/article/download/456/340/862 (PDF)
14:50 We are totally leaving out a whole bunch of stuff, on the way to WWI, e.g. Charles Babbage and others’ work on breaking the Vigenère cipher using machines, because it didn’t really have that much impact on military communications cryptanalisis. That is left as an exercise for the reader.
15:04 Episode 1 – https://cybersecurityadvisors.network/2024/09/10/subsea-cables-a-crunchy-target/
Episode 2 – https://cybersecurityadvisors.network/2024/09/24/subsea-cables-part-ii-mind-the-sharks/
15:12 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Room_40
15:21 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zimmermann_telegram – one of the all time dumbest moves in a long history of dumb moves.
15:45 Oh look, we went and mentioned him after all – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Babbage
15:47 Also, an ok-ish book by Neal Stephenson. If you want to go down a rabbit hole, several people have actually built working models based on Babbage’s designs.
16:30 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Niedermayer%E2%80%93Hentig_Expedition
16:45 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abhorchdienst
17:07 Or, if you believe Hollywood, because Matthew McConaughey singlehandedly captured U-571 and its codebook.
17:39 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MI8
17:50 From Secretary of State Henry Stimson. Allegedly.
18:18 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hebern_rotor_machine
18:27 Byuro Szifrow – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cipher_Bureau_(Poland)
18:31 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marian_Rejewski
18:45 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rotor_machine – the Hebern machine was one of these.
18:50 Obligatory – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enigma_machine
19:54 Lorenz cipher – similar, but with some differences, e.g. https://thehistorypress.co.uk/article/how-lorenz-was-different-from-enigma/
20:47 Open to visitors! https://bletchleypark.org.uk/
21:05 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colossus_computer
24:00 See also: the Double-Cross System
24:19 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Juan_Pujol_Garc%C3%ADa
25:45 https://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/a-wwii-propaganda-campaign-popularized-the-myth-that-carrots-help-you-see-in-the-dark-28812484/ – carrots are good for your eyes, though. Eat your vegetables.
27:42 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pearl_Harbor_advance-knowledge_conspiracy_theory
28:15 Purple code, aka the Type B cipher machine – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Type_B_Cipher_Machine
28:20 Wikipedia has a big list of Japanese naval codes here – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_naval_codes
28:28 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magic_(cryptography)
28:36 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Rochefort
29:56 https://www.intelligence.gov/people/barrier-breakers-in-history/453-navajo-code-talkers
30:44 Italian-only, we’re afraid – https://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Servizio_informazioni_militare
31:04 Richard Sorge – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Sorge
31:05 Apparently there is some discussion about whether the “Red Orchestra” (German name Rotes Orchester) was a single organization controlled by the USSR or rather several loose groups of anti-Nazi Germans acting independently. Draw your own confusions.
32:45 For example https://www.101computing.net/enigma-machine-emulator/
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