#bletchleypark — Public Fediverse posts
Live and recent posts from across the Fediverse tagged #bletchleypark, aggregated by home.social.
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Breaking Enigma with an FPGA, Just like at Bletchly Park
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Breaking Enigma with an FPGA, Just like at Bletchly Park
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Visited #BletchleyPark yesterday. Just fantastic!
I spent the whole day there, 10am - 5pm, and I still didn't manage to see everything!
I also enjoyed one of the free guided tours with one of the very knowledgeable volunteers who clearly had a lot more to tell than the 1hr allowed.
For #InternationalWomensDay (3/4 of those at BP were women), there are interactive activities - I really enjoyed writing messages in #Baudot-Murray code and manually punching holes in paper cards.
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Visited #BletchleyPark yesterday. Just fantastic!
I spent the whole day there, 10am - 5pm, and I still didn't manage to see everything!
I also enjoyed one of the free guided tours with one of the very knowledgeable volunteers who clearly had a lot more to tell than the 1hr allowed.
For #InternationalWomensDay (3/4 of those at BP were women), there are interactive activities - I really enjoyed writing messages in #Baudot-Murray code and manually punching holes in paper cards.
-
Visited #BletchleyPark yesterday. Just fantastic!
I spent the whole day there, 10am - 5pm, and I still didn't manage to see everything!
I also enjoyed one of the free guided tours with one of the very knowledgeable volunteers who clearly had a lot more to tell than the 1hr allowed.
For #InternationalWomensDay (3/4 of those at BP were women), there are interactive activities - I really enjoyed writing messages in #Baudot-Murray code and manually punching holes in paper cards.
-
Visited #BletchleyPark yesterday. Just fantastic!
I spent the whole day there, 10am - 5pm, and I still didn't manage to see everything!
I also enjoyed one of the free guided tours with one of the very knowledgeable volunteers who clearly had a lot more to tell than the 1hr allowed.
For #InternationalWomensDay (3/4 of those at BP were women), there are interactive activities - I really enjoyed writing messages in #Baudot-Murray code and manually punching holes in paper cards.
-
Visited #BletchleyPark yesterday. Just fantastic!
I spent the whole day there, 10am - 5pm, and I still didn't manage to see everything!
I also enjoyed one of the free guided tours with one of the very knowledgeable volunteers who clearly had a lot more to tell than the 1hr allowed.
For #InternationalWomensDay (3/4 of those at BP were women), there are interactive activities - I really enjoyed writing messages in #Baudot-Murray code and manually punching holes in paper cards.
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Weekly output: Musk digitally deleting USAID, Arm vs. Qualcomm, U.K. vs. Apple, 8K TV, Bletchley Park
One of this week’s published stories began with reporting weeks ago; another began with notes and photos taken months ago.
2/3/2025: Musk’s Minions Deleting Digital Presence of US International Development Agency, PCMag
I could not just write about the weird digital erasure Elon Musk and his goons have been inflicting on the online presence of the U.S. Agency for International Development without reminding readers of three important bits of context: USAID does good and useful work (as vouched for in that quote from Georgetown University government-department chair Anthony Arend, four of whose classes I took as an undergrad 35-plus years ago); USAID constituted all of .4% of the federal budget in fiscal year 2024; Elon Musk’s tweets show no sign of him having any interest in the agency until January.
2/6/2025: Arm Drops Effort to Cancel Qualcomm’s Chip-Licensing Deal, PCMag
If you were considering buying a Windows laptop with one of Qualcomm’s power-efficient Snapdragon X processors, this should rank as very good news.
2/7/2025: Report: UK Orders Apple to Disable E2E Encryption on iCloud Backups Worldwide, PCMag
Writing up the Washington Post’s scoop about this dangerous demand by the U.K.’s Home Office gave me a crash course in looking up and citing legislation on Parliament’s Web site–without which I would have been writing about the Investigatory Powers Act without pointing people to the text of that 2016 statute and its 2024 amendments.
2/8/2025: In 2025, the Picture for 8K TVs (Still) Isn’t Looking Too Bright or Sharp, PCMag
I originally had delusions of writing this piece from CES with a Las Vegas dateline, but the weeks since then allowed me to get some additional numbers from the Consumer Technology Association and quiz another analyst as well as the head of the 8K Association.
2/9/2025: To See Codebreaking At Its Most Metal, Visit Bletchley Park, PCMag
Some of you may remember my writing a piece about Bletchley Park for the long-gone information-security publication The Parallax in 2018. I decided to revisit this museum of WWII codebreaking when my trip to London in October for Uber’s Go-Get Zero event (on Uber’s dime) left me with an afternoon free, and I’m glad I did because I was able to check out one exhibit that I’d had to skip earlier and see a few exhibits they’d added since then.
#8K #8KTV #AgencyForInternationalDevelopment #ArmHoldings #BletchleyPark #codebreaking #cryptography #EnigmaMachine #iCloudEncryption #InvestigatoryPowersAct #MuskCoup #Qualcomm #SnapdragonX #SnoopersCharter #UKHomeOffice #USAID
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Weekly output: Musk digitally deleting USAID, Arm vs. Qualcomm, U.K. vs. Apple, 8K TV, Bletchley Park
One of this week’s published stories began with reporting weeks ago; another began with notes and photos taken months ago.
2/3/2025: Musk’s Minions Deleting Digital Presence of US International Development Agency, PCMag
I could not just write about the weird digital erasure Elon Musk and his goons have been inflicting on the online presence of the U.S. Agency for International Development without reminding readers of three important bits of context: USAID does good and useful work (as vouched for in that quote from Georgetown University government-department chair Anthony Arend, four of whose classes I took as an undergrad 35-plus years ago); USAID constituted all of .4% of the federal budget in fiscal year 2024; Elon Musk’s tweets show no sign of him having any interest in the agency until January.
2/6/2025: Arm Drops Effort to Cancel Qualcomm’s Chip-Licensing Deal, PCMag
If you were considering buying a Windows laptop with one of Qualcomm’s power-efficient Snapdragon X processors, this should rank as very good news.
2/7/2025: Report: UK Orders Apple to Disable E2E Encryption on iCloud Backups Worldwide, PCMag
Writing up the Washington Post’s scoop about this dangerous demand by the U.K.’s Home Office gave me a crash course in looking up and citing legislation on Parliament’s Web site–without which I would have been writing about the Investigatory Powers Act without pointing people to the text of that 2016 statute and its 2024 amendments.
2/8/2025: In 2025, the Picture for 8K TVs (Still) Isn’t Looking Too Bright or Sharp, PCMag
I originally had delusions of writing this piece from CES with a Las Vegas dateline, but the weeks since then allowed me to get some additional numbers from the Consumer Technology Association and quiz another analyst as well as the head of the 8K Association.
2/9/2025: To See Codebreaking At Its Most Metal, Visit Bletchley Park, PCMag
Some of you may remember my writing a piece about Bletchley Park for the long-gone information-security publication The Parallax in 2018. I decided to revisit this museum of WWII codebreaking when my trip to London in October for Uber’s Go-Get Zero event (on Uber’s dime) left me with an afternoon free, and I’m glad I did because I was able to check out one exhibit that I’d had to skip earlier and see a few exhibits they’d added since then.
#8K #8KTV #AgencyForInternationalDevelopment #ArmHoldings #BletchleyPark #codebreaking #cryptography #EnigmaMachine #iCloudEncryption #InvestigatoryPowersAct #MuskCoup #Qualcomm #SnapdragonX #SnoopersCharter #UKHomeOffice #USAID
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Weekly output: Musk digitally deleting USAID, Arm vs. Qualcomm, U.K. vs. Apple, 8K TV, Bletchley Park
One of this week’s published stories began with reporting weeks ago; another began with notes and photos taken months ago.
2/3/2025: Musk’s Minions Deleting Digital Presence of US International Development Agency, PCMag
I could not just write about the weird digital erasure Elon Musk and his goons have been inflicting on the online presence of the U.S. Agency for International Development without reminding readers of three important bits of context: USAID does good and useful work (as vouched for in that quote from Georgetown University government-department chair Anthony Arend, four of whose classes I took as an undergrad 35-plus years ago); USAID constituted all of .4% of the federal budget in fiscal year 2024; Elon Musk’s tweets show no sign of him having any interest in the agency until January.
2/6/2025: Arm Drops Effort to Cancel Qualcomm’s Chip-Licensing Deal, PCMag
If you were considering buying a Windows laptop with one of Qualcomm’s power-efficient Snapdragon X processors, this should rank as very good news.
2/7/2025: Report: UK Orders Apple to Disable E2E Encryption on iCloud Backups Worldwide, PCMag
Writing up the Washington Post’s scoop about this dangerous demand by the U.K.’s Home Office gave me a crash course in looking up and citing legislation on Parliament’s Web site–without which I would have been writing about the Investigatory Powers Act without pointing people to the text of that 2016 statute and its 2024 amendments.
2/8/2025: In 2025, the Picture for 8K TVs (Still) Isn’t Looking Too Bright or Sharp, PCMag
I originally had delusions of writing this piece from CES with a Las Vegas dateline, but the weeks since then allowed me to get some additional numbers from the Consumer Technology Association and quiz another analyst as well as the head of the 8K Association.
2/9/2025: To See Codebreaking At Its Most Metal, Visit Bletchley Park, PCMag
Some of you may remember my writing a piece about Bletchley Park for the long-gone information-security publication The Parallax in 2018. I decided to revisit this museum of WWII codebreaking when my trip to London in October for Uber’s Go-Get Zero event (on Uber’s dime) left me with an afternoon free, and I’m glad I did because I was able to check out one exhibit that I’d had to skip earlier and see a few exhibits they’d added since then.
#8K #8KTV #AgencyForInternationalDevelopment #ArmHoldings #BletchleyPark #codebreaking #cryptography #EnigmaMachine #iCloudEncryption #InvestigatoryPowersAct #MuskCoup #Qualcomm #SnapdragonX #SnoopersCharter #UKHomeOffice #USAID
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Code Breaking in the Pacific
You’ve heard about Enigma cipher machines, and how codebreakers at England’s Bletchley Park cracked messages during World War II. There are amazing stories about how the specialized machines they built helped them decipher messages, and become the predecessors of today’s computers.
But you may not have heard about a different kind of codebreaking going on in the Pacific during the same period. The problems and techniques were completely different, because enemy messages were transmitted in code, not cipher. And there were some incredible success stories from this period, such as the battle of Midway, which turned the tide of the conflict in the Pacific.
The methods used in code breaking behind those successes are quite different to those used against encryption machine ciphers such as the Enigma. The reason is that the main cipher systems used by the Japanese were based on code books rather than a machine. “Code Breaking in the Pacific” is the first book to provide a complete description of those systems and the development of the techniques used to break them. It addresses the last major gap in the literature of WW2 cryptography and most likely the last major gap in the literature of WW2.
This very dense book was written by two mathematicians: Peter Donovan and John Mack. Math and I have never been on good terms, we’re definitely not friends. So the math in the book is *completely* over my head. But there were some interesting nuggets that jumped out:
☑️ As early as 1916, the British were using Hollerith punch-card equipment from the U.S. to decode enemy messages. The Hollerith company eventually became IBM.
☑️ The skills required for successful decoding . . . [of these messages] are more akin to the linguistic challenge of determining the nature and meaning of an unknown written language than to those needed for elucidating the operation of a cipher machine . . .”
☑️ Lightly used code books were particularly difficult to crack.
☑️ The use of boilerplate messages by the other side provided codebreakers with a way to crack messages.
☑️ Some of these systems were designed to keep information secure only for a few hours.
☑️ Choosing to doubly encrypt messages often made the system *less* secure, not more secure.
☑️ Major pieces of disinformation were known as “purple whales.” 🐳🐋🐳
If you have an interest in math and history, this may be right up your alley.
But this book isn’t cheap. One option: “check it out like a library book” from a local university library.
#WW2
#CodeBreaking
#BookReview
#Cryptography
#Enigma
#EnigmaMachine
#BletchleyPark
#CodeBreakingInThePacific
#TelegraphicCodeBooksNote: This is *not* an affiliate link. I’m simply recommending this high-quality book for those who might find it interesting.
-
Code Breaking in the Pacific
You’ve heard about Enigma cipher machines, and how codebreakers at England’s Bletchley Park cracked messages during World War II. There are amazing stories about how the specialized machines they built helped them decipher messages, and become the predecessors of today’s computers.
But you may not have heard about a different kind of codebreaking going on in the Pacific during the same period. The problems and techniques were completely different, because enemy messages were transmitted in code, not cipher. And there were some incredible success stories from this period, such as the battle of Midway, which turned the tide of the conflict in the Pacific.
The methods used in code breaking behind those successes are quite different to those used against encryption machine ciphers such as the Enigma. The reason is that the main cipher systems used by the Japanese were based on code books rather than a machine. “Code Breaking in the Pacific” is the first book to provide a complete description of those systems and the development of the techniques used to break them. It addresses the last major gap in the literature of WW2 cryptography and most likely the last major gap in the literature of WW2.
This very dense book was written by two mathematicians: Peter Donovan and John Mack. Math and I have never been on good terms, we’re definitely not friends. So the math in the book is *completely* over my head. But there were some interesting nuggets that jumped out:
☑️ As early as 1916, the British were using Hollerith punch-card equipment from the U.S. to decode enemy messages. The Hollerith company eventually became IBM.
☑️ The skills required for successful decoding . . . [of these messages] are more akin to the linguistic challenge of determining the nature and meaning of an unknown written language than to those needed for elucidating the operation of a cipher machine . . .”
☑️ Lightly used code books were particularly difficult to crack.
☑️ The use of boilerplate messages by the other side provided codebreakers with a way to crack messages.
☑️ Some of these systems were designed to keep information secure only for a few hours.
☑️ Choosing to doubly encrypt messages often made the system *less* secure, not more secure.
☑️ Major pieces of disinformation were known as “purple whales.” 🐳🐋🐳
If you have an interest in math and history, this may be right up your alley.
But this book isn’t cheap. One option: “check it out like a library book” from a local university library.
#WW2
#CodeBreaking
#BookReview
#Cryptography
#Enigma
#EnigmaMachine
#BletchleyPark
#CodeBreakingInThePacific
#TelegraphicCodeBooksNote: This is *not* an affiliate link. I’m simply recommending this high-quality book for those who might find it interesting.
-
Code Breaking in the Pacific
You’ve heard about Enigma cipher machines, and how codebreakers at England’s Bletchley Park cracked messages during World War II. There are amazing stories about how the specialized machines they built helped them decipher messages, and become the predecessors of today’s computers.
But you may not have heard about a different kind of codebreaking going on in the Pacific during the same period. The problems and techniques were completely different, because enemy messages were transmitted in code, not cipher. And there were some incredible success stories from this period, such as the battle of Midway, which turned the tide of the conflict in the Pacific.
The methods used in code breaking behind those successes are quite different to those used against encryption machine ciphers such as the Enigma. The reason is that the main cipher systems used by the Japanese were based on code books rather than a machine. “Code Breaking in the Pacific” is the first book to provide a complete description of those systems and the development of the techniques used to break them. It addresses the last major gap in the literature of WW2 cryptography and most likely the last major gap in the literature of WW2.
This very dense book was written by two mathematicians: Peter Donovan and John Mack. Math and I have never been on good terms, we’re definitely not friends. So the math in the book is *completely* over my head. But there were some interesting nuggets that jumped out:
☑️ As early as 1916, the British were using Hollerith punch-card equipment from the U.S. to decode enemy messages. The Hollerith company eventually became IBM.
☑️ The skills required for successful decoding . . . [of these messages] are more akin to the linguistic challenge of determining the nature and meaning of an unknown written language than to those needed for elucidating the operation of a cipher machine . . .”
☑️ Lightly used code books were particularly difficult to crack.
☑️ The use of boilerplate messages by the other side provided codebreakers with a way to crack messages.
☑️ Some of these systems were designed to keep information secure only for a few hours.
☑️ Choosing to doubly encrypt messages often made the system *less* secure, not more secure.
☑️ Major pieces of disinformation were known as “purple whales.” 🐳🐋🐳
If you have an interest in math and history, this may be right up your alley.
But this book isn’t cheap. One option: “check it out like a library book” from a local university library.
#WW2
#CodeBreaking
#BookReview
#Cryptography
#Enigma
#EnigmaMachine
#BletchleyPark
#CodeBreakingInThePacific
#TelegraphicCodeBooksNote: This is *not* an affiliate link. I’m simply recommending this high-quality book for those who might find it interesting.
-
Code Breaking in the Pacific
You’ve heard about Enigma cipher machines, and how codebreakers at England’s Bletchley Park cracked messages during World War II. There are amazing stories about how the specialized machines they built helped them decipher messages, and become the predecessors of today’s computers.
But you may not have heard about a different kind of codebreaking going on in the Pacific during the same period. The problems and techniques were completely different, because enemy messages were transmitted in code, not cipher. And there were some incredible success stories from this period, such as the battle of Midway, which turned the tide of the conflict in the Pacific.
The methods used in code breaking behind those successes are quite different to those used against encryption machine ciphers such as the Enigma. The reason is that the main cipher systems used by the Japanese were based on code books rather than a machine. “Code Breaking in the Pacific” is the first book to provide a complete description of those systems and the development of the techniques used to break them. It addresses the last major gap in the literature of WW2 cryptography and most likely the last major gap in the literature of WW2.
This very dense book was written by two mathematicians: Peter Donovan and John Mack. Math and I have never been on good terms, we’re definitely not friends. So the math in the book is *completely* over my head. But there were some interesting nuggets that jumped out:
☑️ As early as 1916, the British were using Hollerith punch-card equipment from the U.S. to decode enemy messages. The Hollerith company eventually became IBM.
☑️ The skills required for successful decoding . . . [of these messages] are more akin to the linguistic challenge of determining the nature and meaning of an unknown written language than to those needed for elucidating the operation of a cipher machine . . .”
☑️ Lightly used code books were particularly difficult to crack.
☑️ The use of boilerplate messages by the other side provided codebreakers with a way to crack messages.
☑️ Some of these systems were designed to keep information secure only for a few hours.
☑️ Choosing to doubly encrypt messages often made the system *less* secure, not more secure.
☑️ Major pieces of disinformation were known as “purple whales.” 🐳🐋🐳
If you have an interest in math and history, this may be right up your alley.
But this book isn’t cheap. One option: “check it out like a library book” from a local university library.
#WW2
#CodeBreaking
#BookReview
#Cryptography
#Enigma
#EnigmaMachine
#BletchleyPark
#CodeBreakingInThePacific
#TelegraphicCodeBooksNote: This is *not* an affiliate link. I’m simply recommending this high-quality book for those who might find it interesting.
-
Code Breaking in the Pacific
You’ve heard about Enigma cipher machines, and how codebreakers at England’s Bletchley Park cracked messages during World War II. There are amazing stories about how the specialized machines they built helped them decipher messages, and become the predecessors of today’s computers.
But you may not have heard about a different kind of codebreaking going on in the Pacific during the same period. The problems and techniques were completely different, because enemy messages were transmitted in code, not cipher. And there were some incredible success stories from this period, such as the battle of Midway, which turned the tide of the conflict in the Pacific.
The methods used in code breaking behind those successes are quite different to those used against encryption machine ciphers such as the Enigma. The reason is that the main cipher systems used by the Japanese were based on code books rather than a machine. “Code Breaking in the Pacific” is the first book to provide a complete description of those systems and the development of the techniques used to break them. It addresses the last major gap in the literature of WW2 cryptography and most likely the last major gap in the literature of WW2.
This very dense book was written by two mathematicians: Peter Donovan and John Mack. Math and I have never been on good terms, we’re definitely not friends. So the math in the book is *completely* over my head. But there were some interesting nuggets that jumped out:
☑️ As early as 1916, the British were using Hollerith punch-card equipment from the U.S. to decode enemy messages. The Hollerith company eventually became IBM.
☑️ The skills required for successful decoding . . . [of these messages] are more akin to the linguistic challenge of determining the nature and meaning of an unknown written language than to those needed for elucidating the operation of a cipher machine . . .”
☑️ Lightly used code books were particularly difficult to crack.
☑️ The use of boilerplate messages by the other side provided codebreakers with a way to crack messages.
☑️ Some of these systems were designed to keep information secure only for a few hours.
☑️ Choosing to doubly encrypt messages often made the system *less* secure, not more secure.
☑️ Major pieces of disinformation were known as “purple whales.” 🐳🐋🐳
If you have an interest in math and history, this may be right up your alley.
But this book isn’t cheap. One option: “check it out like a library book” from a local university library.
#WW2
#CodeBreaking
#BookReview
#Cryptography
#Enigma
#EnigmaMachine
#BletchleyPark
#CodeBreakingInThePacific
#TelegraphicCodeBooksNote: This is *not* an affiliate link. I’m simply recommending this high-quality book for those who might find it interesting.
-
Code Breaking in the Pacific
You’ve heard about Enigma cipher machines, and how codebreakers at England’s Bletchley Park cracked messages during World War II. There are amazing stories about how the specialized machines they built helped them decipher messages, and become the predecessors of today’s computers.
But you may not have heard about a different kind of codebreaking going on in the Pacific during the same period. The problems and techniques were completely different, because enemy messages were transmitted in code, not cipher. And there were some incredible success stories from this period, such as the battle of Midway, which turned the tide of the conflict in the Pacific.
The methods used in code breaking behind those successes are quite different to those used against encryption machine ciphers such as the Enigma. The reason is that the main cipher systems used by the Japanese were based on code books rather than a machine. “Code Breaking in the Pacific” is the first book to provide a complete description of those systems and the development of the techniques used to break them. It addresses the last major gap in the literature of WW2 cryptography and most likely the last major gap in the literature of WW2.
This very dense book was written by two mathematicians: Peter Donovan and John Mack. Math and I have never been on good terms, we’re definitely not friends. So the math in the book is *completely* over my head. But there were some interesting nuggets that jumped out:
☑️ As early as 1916, the British were using Hollerith punch-card equipment from the U.S. to decode enemy messages. The Hollerith company eventually became IBM.
☑️ The skills required for successful decoding . . . [of these messages] are more akin to the linguistic challenge of determining the nature and meaning of an unknown written language than to those needed for elucidating the operation of a cipher machine . . .”
☑️ Lightly used code books were particularly difficult to crack.
☑️ The use of boilerplate messages by the other side provided codebreakers with a way to crack messages.
☑️ Some of these systems were designed to keep information secure only for a few hours.
☑️ Choosing to doubly encrypt messages often made the system *less* secure, not more secure.
☑️ Major pieces of disinformation were known as “purple whales.” 🐳🐋🐳
If you have an interest in math and history, this may be right up your alley.
But this book isn’t cheap. One option: “check it out like a library book” from a local university library.
#WW2
#CodeBreaking
#BookReview
#Cryptography
#Enigma
#EnigmaMachine
#BletchleyPark
#CodeBreakingInThePacific
#TelegraphicCodeBooksNote: This is *not* an affiliate link. I’m simply recommending this high-quality book for those who might find it interesting.
-
Code Breaking in the Pacific
You’ve heard about Enigma cipher machines, and how codebreakers at England’s Bletchley Park cracked messages during World War II. There are amazing stories about how the specialized machines they built helped them decipher messages, and become the predecessors of today’s computers.
But you may not have heard about a different kind of codebreaking going on in the Pacific during the same period. The problems and techniques were completely different, because enemy messages were transmitted in code, not cipher. And there were some incredible success stories from this period, such as the battle of Midway, which turned the tide of the conflict in the Pacific.
The methods used in code breaking behind those successes are quite different to those used against encryption machine ciphers such as the Enigma. The reason is that the main cipher systems used by the Japanese were based on code books rather than a machine. “Code Breaking in the Pacific” is the first book to provide a complete description of those systems and the development of the techniques used to break them. It addresses the last major gap in the literature of WW2 cryptography and most likely the last major gap in the literature of WW2.
This very dense book was written by two mathematicians: Peter Donovan and John Mack. Math and I have never been on good terms, we’re definitely not friends. So the math in the book is *completely* over my head. But there were some interesting nuggets that jumped out:
☑️ As early as 1916, the British were using Hollerith punch-card equipment from the U.S. to decode enemy messages. The Hollerith company eventually became IBM.
☑️ The skills required for successful decoding . . . [of these messages] are more akin to the linguistic challenge of determining the nature and meaning of an unknown written language than to those needed for elucidating the operation of a cipher machine . . .”
☑️ Lightly used code books were particularly difficult to crack.
☑️ The use of boilerplate messages by the other side provided codebreakers with a way to crack messages.
☑️ Some of these systems were designed to keep information secure only for a few hours.
☑️ Choosing to doubly encrypt messages often made the system *less* secure, not more secure.
☑️ Major pieces of disinformation were known as “purple whales.” 🐳🐋🐳
If you have an interest in math and history, this may be right up your alley.
But this book isn’t cheap. One option: “check it out like a library book” from a local university library.
#WW2
#CodeBreaking
#BookReview
#Cryptography
#Enigma
#EnigmaMachine
#BletchleyPark
#CodeBreakingInThePacific
#TelegraphicCodeBooksNote: This is *not* an affiliate link. I’m simply recommending this high-quality book for those who might find it interesting.
-
Code Breaking in the Pacific
You’ve heard about Enigma cipher machines, and how codebreakers at England’s Bletchley Park cracked messages during World War II. There are amazing stories about how the specialized machines they built helped them decipher messages, and become the predecessors of today’s computers.
But you may not have heard about a different kind of codebreaking going on in the Pacific during the same period. The problems and techniques were completely different, because enemy messages were transmitted in code, not cipher. And there were some incredible success stories from this period, such as the battle of Midway, which turned the tide of the conflict in the Pacific.
The methods used in code breaking behind those successes are quite different to those used against encryption machine ciphers such as the Enigma. The reason is that the main cipher systems used by the Japanese were based on code books rather than a machine. “Code Breaking in the Pacific” is the first book to provide a complete description of those systems and the development of the techniques used to break them. It addresses the last major gap in the literature of WW2 cryptography and most likely the last major gap in the literature of WW2.
This very dense book was written by two mathematicians: Peter Donovan and John Mack. Math and I have never been on good terms, we’re definitely not friends. So the math in the book is *completely* over my head. But there were some interesting nuggets that jumped out:
☑️ As early as 1916, the British were using Hollerith punch-card equipment from the U.S. to decode enemy messages. The Hollerith company eventually became IBM.
☑️ The skills required for successful decoding . . . [of these messages] are more akin to the linguistic challenge of determining the nature and meaning of an unknown written language than to those needed for elucidating the operation of a cipher machine . . .”
☑️ Lightly used code books were particularly difficult to crack.
☑️ The use of boilerplate messages by the other side provided codebreakers with a way to crack messages.
☑️ Some of these systems were designed to keep information secure only for a few hours.
☑️ Choosing to doubly encrypt messages often made the system *less* secure, not more secure.
☑️ Major pieces of disinformation were known as “purple whales.” 🐳🐋🐳
If you have an interest in math and history, this may be right up your alley.
But this book isn’t cheap. One option: “check it out like a library book” from a local university library.
#WW2
#CodeBreaking
#BookReview
#Cryptography
#Enigma
#EnigmaMachine
#BletchleyPark
#CodeBreakingInThePacific
#TelegraphicCodeBooksNote: This is *not* an affiliate link. I’m simply recommending this high-quality book for those who might find it interesting.
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Code Breaking in the Pacific
You’ve heard about Enigma cipher machines, and how codebreakers at England’s Bletchley Park cracked messages during World War II. There are amazing stories about how the specialized machines they built helped them decipher messages, and become the predecessors of today’s computers.
But you may not have heard about a different kind of codebreaking going on in the Pacific during the same period. The problems and techniques were completely different, because enemy messages were transmitted in code, not cipher. And there were some incredible success stories from this period, such as the battle of Midway, which turned the tide of the conflict in the Pacific.
The methods used in code breaking behind those successes are quite different to those used against encryption machine ciphers such as the Enigma. The reason is that the main cipher systems used by the Japanese were based on code books rather than a machine. “Code Breaking in the Pacific” is the first book to provide a complete description of those systems and the development of the techniques used to break them. It addresses the last major gap in the literature of WW2 cryptography and most likely the last major gap in the literature of WW2.
This very dense book was written by two mathematicians: Peter Donovan and John Mack. Math and I have never been on good terms, we’re definitely not friends. So the math in the book is *completely* over my head. But there were some interesting nuggets that jumped out:
☑️ As early as 1916, the British were using Hollerith punch-card equipment from the U.S. to decode enemy messages. The Hollerith company eventually became IBM.
☑️ The skills required for successful decoding . . . [of these messages] are more akin to the linguistic challenge of determining the nature and meaning of an unknown written language than to those needed for elucidating the operation of a cipher machine . . .”
☑️ Lightly used code books were particularly difficult to crack.
☑️ The use of boilerplate messages by the other side provided codebreakers with a way to crack messages.
☑️ Some of these systems were designed to keep information secure only for a few hours.
☑️ Choosing to doubly encrypt messages often made the system *less* secure, not more secure.
☑️ Major pieces of disinformation were known as “purple whales.” 🐳🐋🐳
If you have an interest in math and history, this may be right up your alley.
But this book isn’t cheap. One option: “check it out like a library book” from a local university library.
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#TelegraphicCodeBooksNote: This is *not* an affiliate link. I’m simply recommending this high-quality book for those who might find it interesting.