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#Codebreaking

Bruce MacDonaldrationaldoge@hachyderm.io
2025-05-01

"A lover of puzzles and crosswords while growing up in Pittsburgh during the Great Depression, Mrs. Parsons deciphered German military messages that had been created by an Enigma machine, a typewriter-size device with a keyboard wired to internal rotors, which generated millions of codes. Her efforts provided Allied forces with information critical to evading, attacking and sinking enemy submarines."
nytimes.com/2025/04/30/world/j

#Enigma #obituary #codebreaking

Victoria Stuart 🇨🇦 🏳️‍⚧️persagen
2025-04-02

Bletchley Park code breaker Betty Webb dies aged 101
bbc.com/news/articles/c78jd30y
news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bletchle

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Betty_We

MediaFaro Magazinemf_magazine@mastodon.mediafaro.org
2025-04-02

One of the last of Bletchley Park's quiet heroes, Betty Webb, dies at 101.

Betty Webb MBE, one of the team who worked at the code-breaking Bletchley Park facility during the Second World War, has died at the age of 101.

For 30 years she never told anyone about her wartime experiences and it wasn't until the 1970s that she was informed that the prohibition on discussing Bletchley had been lifted.

mediafaro.org/article/20250402

#BletchleyPark #BettyWebb #WorldWar2 #Encryption #CodeBreaking #History

Yetkin Degirmenci 🍫yetkinmiller@infosec.exchange
2025-02-23

I've encoded a POEM w/ Affine cipher
Way to get the key:

a= ⭐
b= 🌈

Decipher this:

Yqb tevy ydout tkznkx, h gohlohuy ybhtb,
Wzubo fbmhm, h rdkvuhox mobbcb.
Khxbot zg pbhy, tz yqvukx tkvrbw,
H txpeqzux zg gkhizot, uvrbkx tevrbw.

#Cipher #Puzzle #CodeBreaking #Quote

First one solve gets a virtual hi5 :) and a artistic potato picture

Rob Pegorarorobpegoraro.com@robpegoraro.com
2025-02-10

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

:rss: Hacker Newsycombinator@rss-mstdn.studiofreesia.com
2024-12-24

National Cryptologic Museum (NSA/CSS) New Temporary Exhibit on Project Stargate
nsa.gov/Press-Room/News-Highli
#ycombinator #cryptology #foreign_signals_intelligence #cybersecurity #codemaking #codebreaking #National_Security_Agency #NSA #Intelligence_Community

ResearchBuzz: Firehoseresearchbuzz_firehose@rbfirehose.com
2024-12-16

Associated Press: UK spy agency releases annual Christmas card puzzle to uncover future codebreakers. “GCHQ, Britain’s electronic and cyber-intelligence agency, on Wednesday published its annual Christmas Challenge – a seasonal greeting card that doubles as a set of fiendishly difficult puzzles designed to excite young minds about solving cyphers and unearthing clues.”

https://rbfirehose.com/2024/12/16/associated-press-uk-spy-agency-releases-annual-christmas-card-puzzle-to-uncover-future-codebreakers/

KE0FFTKE0FFT@mastodon.hams.social
2024-11-09

Here is a link to the Audible version of Betty Webb’s book, “No More Secrets: My Part in #Codebreaking at #BletchleyPark and the Pentagon.” #CodeBreakers

audible.com/pd/B0C43LKLJJ?sour

Today On Screentodayonscreen@xoxo.zone
2024-07-09

#OnThisDay, July 9, in 1941, British cryptologists led by Alan Turing broke the Enigma code used by the German army to direct ground-to-air operations on the Eastern front (depicted in The Imitation Game, 2014)

#Movies #Film #Cinema #Cinemastodon #Letterboxd #TodayInHistory #Histodons #Cryptography #Codebreaking #Enigma #EnigmaMachine #TheImitationGame

A man's face as he concentrates intenselyA close-up of several rows of spinning mechanical dials, part of the Enigma computing machine
MOULEMOULE@moule.world
2024-06-17

Just discovered this weird channel on #YouTube. Some sort of #ARG / #CodeBreaking puzzle?

youtube.com/watch?v=VGK3Ag06Va

(Content Warning: Flashy, glitchy distorted imagery, sudden loud noises)

RoundSparrow 🐦RoundSparrow
2024-06-09

Navajo WIndTalker level code metaphors in lyrics

youtube.com/watch?v=viimfQi_pUw

earthlingappassionato
2024-05-20

Code Warriors: NSA's Codebreakers and the Secret Intelligence War Against the Soviet Union by Stephen Budiansky, 2016

Stephen Budiansky—a longtime expert in cryptology—tells the fascinating story of how NSA came to be, from its roots in World War II through the fall of the Berlin Wall. Along the way, he guides us through the fascinating challenges faced by cryptanalysts, and how they broke some of the most complicated codes of the 20th c.

@bookstodon



A sweeping, in-depth history of NSA. The National Security Agency was born out of the legendary codebreaking programs of World War II that cracked the famed Enigma machine and other German and Japanese codes, thereby turning the tide of Allied victory. In the postwar years, as the United States developed a new enemy in the Soviet Union, our intelligence community found itself targeting not soldiers on the battlefield, but suspected spies, foreign leaders, and even American citizens. Throughout the second half of the twentieth century, NSA played a vital, often fraught and controversial role in the major events of the Cold War, from the Korean War to the Cuban Missile Crisis to Vietnam and beyond. With access to new documents, Budiansky shows where the agency succeeded and failed during the Cold War, but his account also offers crucial perspective for assessing NSA today in the wake of the Edward Snowden revelations. Budiansky shows how NSA’s obsession with recording every bit of data and decoding every signal is far from a new development; throughout its history the depth and breadth of the agency’s reach has resulted in both remarkable successes and destructive failures. Featuring a series of appendixes that explain the technical details of Soviet codes and how they were broken, this is a rich and riveting history of the underbelly of the Cold War, and an essential and timely read for all who seek to understand the origins of the modern NSA.
Adam Sjøgrenasjo@illuminant.asjo.org
2024-05-04

When the Polish code breakers had found a German enigma key, it was sent to the British encrypted using... an enigma machine!

¡ flyingpenguin: Polish Embassy Interviews 1st Person to Crack Enigma: Marian Rejewski

(via Bruce Schneier).

Marian Rejewski being interviewed about code breaking during the second world war, subtext saying 'almost comical'
Useless Facts, Badly Drawnuselessfactsbadlydrawn
2024-04-26

Useless Facts, Badly Drawn #351: Kryptos.
.
.

Kryptos is a sculpture and puzzle at the CIA headquarters in Langley, VA depicting a four-part encoded message. The first three parts have been solved, but the fourth remains unsolved to this day, despite decades of attempts by the world's best code-breakers. Only two people alive know the entire message.
AndyAGT@mastodon.scot
2024-04-09

#puzzles #bletchleypark #crossword #ww2 #intelligence #codebreakers #codebreaking #telegraph #telegraphcrossword #dailytelegraph The infamous Bletchley Park “recruitment” crossword from WW2. Solve it within 12 minutes, and you could potentially have been working for British intelligence!
Good luck, your country’s counting on you, and no Googling the answers…

The Telegraph crossword published in WW2, to get smart people into Bletchley Park!
tom™ ⋮🦎⋮ :blobcatcoffee: ⋮🐉⋮lulawab@norden.social
2024-03-09

„Die Codebrecherin“

#cryptography #codebreaking

arte.tv/de/videos/115537-000-A

AndyAGT@mastodon.scot
2024-03-08

#internationalwomensday #joanclarke #ww2 #science #computing #bletchleypark #bletchley #codebreaking #enigma #alanturing #uk 
On international women’s day, here’s a name more people should know. Joan Clarke, one of the brilliant and elite team of code breakers at Bletchley Park in World War 2. If you haven’t seen “The Imitation Game” make sure you do. It’s a great movie!

Bruce MacDonaldrationaldoge@hachyderm.io
2024-02-28

I probably shouldn't leave this lying around. #HamRadio #ShortwaveRadio #cryptography #CodeBreaking #Ovaltine

Photo: a one-time pad and cipher decoding sheet from a talk at my ham radio club meeting last night about those "numbers stations" you sometimes hear on shortwave radio. Be sure to drink your Ovaltine.
J❀ylurkjay
2024-01-30

Battle of Wits: The Complete Story of Codebreaking in World War II by Stephen Budiansky

Text instead of screenshots: cohost.org/lurkjay/post/432312

Leonard Woolf described wartime England as grey boredom; “endlessly waiting in a dirty, grey railway station waiting-room.” The boredom was personal and cosmic, petty and universal. Adding to the inevitable boredom of wartime, of rationing and lines and shortages of everything and endless waits, was the incomprehensible boredom of no news. American war correspondents had flocked to the Continent to cover the war in the West and promptly dubbed it the “phony war.” The French hunkered behind the Maginot Line and waited. Blacked-out London waited, too, for the Luftwaffe bombers that failed to appear night after night. Whatever slight novelty the blackout had at first provided was soon replaced by only more boredom and irritation; one in five Britons, a Gallup poll reported a few months into the phony war, had been injured in the blackout, tripping and falling on the sidewalk, being knocked down by a car, colliding with other pedestrians. The stifling heat wave that had gripped London in September melted away to a cold grey fall and then to the bitterest winter in forty-five years. Coal was in short supply, water pipes burst, trains were buried in snow drifts, telephone lines were knocked down, the Thames froze to solid ice from Teddington to Sudbury. At Bletchley Park, everyone sat at their desks bundled in coats and mittens. The house was bad but the wooden huts were worse, with their bare concrete floors and erratically functioning electric heaters.Though the erratic electric heaters were at least better than the coal stoves, whose undersized metal flues, poking straight up through the asbestos roofs of the huts, refused to draw in a high wind. The backdrafts would send flames shooting from the stoves, or simply extinguish the fire and fill the rooms with smoke. Back in August, after receiving the Enigma replica from the Poles, Knox had set to work at once to have additional replicas made; the quickest route was to adapt British Typex cipher machines. The Typex worked much the same way as the Enigma, with the added advantage that it printed out the results of its encipherment or decipherment on strips of paper. New Typex rotors were accordingly wired to duplicate the Enigma rotors. The other task was equally straightforward: begin cranking a cyclometer through all 17,576 settings in all fifty-eight remaining wheel orders, note down the ones that permit repeated letters in the doubly enciphered indicators, and punch two new complete sets of 1,560 Zygalski sheets—one for GC&CS, one for the French and Poles. The repeats were known as “females”; Knox and his team devised a cyclometer that would automatically print the results onto grid sheets, which could then simply have a hole punched at each mark and be ready for use. That eliminated the great danger of transcribing errors. It also promised to speed up an otherwise overwhelmingly slow and tedious chore.On November 1, 1939, the mathematicians reported that a small manual cyclometer was continually breaking down, but that the new automatic device was “promised in a fortnight.” Because its task was to sort settings into “males” and “females,” they dubbed the new machine a “sex-cyclometer.” Twinn, Thring, Welchman, and Jeffreys—GC&CS’s four Oxbridge mathematicians—were now firmly established in the Cottage as members of Knox’s Enigma team. They had not had an easy start of it. Knox, said Welchman, was “neither an organization man nor a technical man; he was, essentially an idea-struck man.” Knox’s habit of solitary contemplation in the bath, for which he had been famous in Room 40, continued at Bletchley Park; at his billet, a colleague later recalled, Knox “once stayed so long in the bathroom that his fellow-lodgers at last forced the door. They found him standing by the bath, a faint smile on his face, his gaze fixed on abstractions, both taps full on and the plug out.” Knox was also an extremely difficult man who “disliked most of the men with whom he came in contact,” Welchman found, and he was also possessive in the extreme about what he viewed as his ideas. Knox told Welchman next to nothing about the Enigma, gave him some menial tasks for a couple of weeks, then subjected him to “some sort of test and appeared to be, if anything, annoyed that I passed,” Welchman said.Whereupon Knox banished him from the Cottage and Welchman found himself deposited in a barren room in Elmers School with instructions to make a study of the call signs that appeared at the beginning of each intercepted Enigma message. It was not a useless task by any means, though it was hardly higher mathematics. Studying the call signs and other “externals” of radio traffic, such as message length, radio frequency, and time of transmission, could reveal how many different networks were in operation. Each network used its own daily settings of the Enigma machine, so being able to find a quick and sure way to sort the batches of incoming Enigma traffic into these separate networks was vital to avoid a lot of wasted effort and confusion when it came to breaking it. The process was known as “traffic analysis,” and it could even be used to extract intelligence about the enemy order of battle by studying which stations communicated with which others. Welchman found that colored pencils were the easiest way to chart the various separate networks, and the practice of calling Enigma nets by color names stuck. The system quickly became so dependent on Welchman’s color scheme that when the stocks of red, green, yellow, orange, brown, and several other colored pencils ran out shortly thereafter, Bletchley Park sent an urgent request to America for new supplies.
bananabob :tinoflag:bananabob@mastodon.nz
2024-01-18

80 years later, GCHQ releases new images of Nazi code-breaking computer

arstechnica.com/gadgets/2024/0

#ArsTechnica #CodeBreaking #Colossus #ComputerHistory

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