This
page provides news, articles and links about
historical ciphers and codes, cipher machines,
and cryptography related exhibits and events,
from the ancient history over the First and
Second World War to the Cold War and beyond.
If you
have interesting news on cryptologic
history, then contact
us. History is
here to share!
SECOND ELITE BOX
CRACKED BY MAGNUS EKHALL 04 December
2024
Magnus Ekhall just solved a second box
from the Elite Box challenge, the successor of
the still running Crypto Box Challenge. In both
challenges, the participants decrypt three short
texts by shifting the rows and columns in a small
text square. Retrieving the original text has
proven to be a real challenge, as even a few
shuffles create a true brain-teasing puzzle.
The Crypto Box Challenge
started in 2007, and over the years, participants
from 26 different countries have entered the
challenge. We therefore started the Elite Box
Challenge in 2018. However, the Elite Boxes are
far more difficult than the Crypto Boxes, and
cryptanalytic techniques can be useful to solve them.
We therefore recommend to first train your skills on
the Crypto Box Challenge, although not mandatory.
THE 2024 GCHQ CHRISTMAS
CHALLENGE IS ANNOUNCED 19 November
2024
The Government
Communications Headquarters has announced its
annual series of Christmas puzzles. Their job is
making and breaking codes, and providing secure
communications, but once a year, a GCHQ team of
smart puzzlers creates a series of true
brainteasers. The challenge is designed to tickle
the interest of young people, age 11 to 18, who
must work in teams and use all their
out-of-the-box thinking skills, some of which are
useful to become a spy. However, those age 19 to
99 can also put their teeth in the challenge, as
there's no age limit on using your brain.
To know what you're up against,
and to train your skills, download the 2022 and 2023 challenges
and their solutions, to get an idea of the
various types of puzzles and how to find
solutions to solve them. Of course, each year,
the creative GCHQ brains come up with new types
of puzzles, but the previous challenges might
inspire you to find ways to solve the 2024
challenge.
The 2024 Christmas Challenge
goes live to the general public on Wednesday 11
December 2024, but schools can already register
to get early access to the challenge and lesson
planning materials. For more details and how
schools can register, visit the GCHQ Christmas
Challenge Page.
ENIGMA TOUCH PRESENTED
ON e-BASTELN WEBSITE 05 November 2024
Jürgen Müller just published the
Enigma Touch, a single-board design of no less
than 13 different Enigma versions. These include
the early Enigma D version, the four Abwehr
versions, the Railway Enigma, the military
versions Enigma I, M3 and M4, and the various
commercial K versions, including the Swiss K and
the Japanese Tirpitz. The plugboard is also
detachable, which enables the use of a wooden
Enigma case where the plugboard is placed
vertically.
However, Jürgen resurrected
many other machines. The Vintage Computing
section includes the Tiny ACE, the LittleGP-30,
RPC-4000, LGP-21, Telefunken Rollkugel, and a
tiny optical punched paper tape reader. There's
also the 65F02, a 6502 programmed in an FPGA,
which emulates the legendary groundbreaking MOS
6502 8-bit processor, used on the KIM-1, Apple
II, Commodore PET, and many other computers.
He also developed the Asteroids
Mini, Pong, and the Verticade arcade console with
a whole range of 1970s and 80s games. Other
projects include his STM Scanning Tunneling
Microscope, and even a breadboard watch he
rightly calls the Nerds Wristwatch.
Visit the Enigma touch page to
discover all the nuts and bolts of this wonderful
project. Although the website is fully in
English, the name e-basteln comes from the German
word for tinkering, crafting or creating, which
is exactly what Jürgen has done with passions in
the past 25 years. Moreover, all projects come
with detailed documentation. So do visit the e-Basteln website.
OPERATION TINKER BELL
CRYPTO SPY ADVENTURE HAS MOVED 29 Oct 2024
Operation
Tinkel Bell has moved
to the Cipher Machines and Cryptology website.
Originally created on blogger, the move offers
more flexibility for HTML, maintenance, and a
broader audience. If you love spy stories, secret
operations and cryptology, this adventure is a
perfect mix.
The year is 1964. Operation
Tinker Bell takes place at the height of the Cold
War and you are assigned to the operation as
COMSEC officer. Your task is to decrypt the
message traffic between intelligence agencies,
their stations abroad and agents in the field.
This sounds harder than it
actually is. All required crypto tools, keys and
clear instructions are provided, and you get the
proper training to work with state-of-the-art
crypto equipment and manual ciphers. If you
successfully decrypt all messages, you name is
engraved in the Wall of Honor.
You will experience spy
tradecraft first-hand. CIA transmitter sites in
West Germany, illegal border crossings, fake
passports, safe houses, the dreaded East-German
Stasi and Czech StB secret police. British
intelligence helps to arrange clandestine
meetings, the U.S. Army Security Agency provides
SIGINT support and some USMLM operations don't
take the rules of engagement too seriously. The
Cold War at its best, authentic details, many
historical photos, as real as it gets.
Click the banner to join the operation and earn
your spot on the Wall of Honor!
THE CODEBREAKERS
INTERNATIONAL ONLINE CONTEST 10 Oct 2024
Great news for those who love
cryptologic challenges! The new edition of theCODEBREAKERS
is online. The contest is dedicated to Marian
Rejewski, Jerzy Rózycki, and Henryk Zygalski,
the three Polish codebreakers who were in 1932
the first to break the encryption of de German
Enigma cipher machine.
The contest website features
lectures where you can learn more about the
history of cryptography, different codes, and of
course the tasks and codes. There are three
levels, each with its own starting date, and the
website is now available in nine languages.
You can already register and
play the single-players trial level, and to
participate in the contest, you register a team
in the levels you want solve, and you can invite
two more players for a three-person team. Each
level consists of several stages, each with
lectures and tasks to solve. The BASIC level game
with tasks in English will start soon.
Make sure to be prepared and
registered in time for the start of the
competition:
TRIAL
Open
BASIC 21
October
ADVENTURE
15 November
ENIGMA 29
November
Visit theCODEBREAKERS website
for more information and follow their Facebook to catch
the latest news. You can also promote their
website and contest by sharing their
poster and flyer. See also the Codebreakers introduction
video below.
THE ENIGMA MACHINE IN
MECCANO 02 Oct 2024
Software
developer Craig Longhurst has always had a keen
interest in all things technical. In 2002 he got
the idea of building a working Enigma, the
well-known German cipher machine of which various
civil and military versions were produced from
1923 throughout the Second World War.
Craig decided to build the
famous Enigma I but designing the rotors with
their internal wiring and contacts proved
complex. Over the years, he learned laser cutting
for the rotor contact holes and later 3D printing
for the discs. These were only a few of the many
obstacles that required quite a bit of work and
imagination, not only to construct the electrical
parts, but also various mechanical components,
all made with Meccano parts.
Although he considered the
rotors the most difficult part, it would be quite
an understatement to call the Meccano
construction of the Enigma, the keyboard with
numerous switches, the contacts and lamp panel
"easy". The result of his creativity
was a fully working Meccano Enigma I in 2024.
Craig's Enigma is published in
the Constructor
Quarterly issue No 145 and if
you're interested in Enigma and Meccano, you're
in for a real treat. The issue has 16 pages on
his Enigma, with 26 excellent highly detailed
photos from all parts, accompanied by information
about the development and construction. Available
as back issue, sent all over the world. In the
video you get an idea of how complex Craig's
project was, and why it took 22 years to complete
his award-winning Enigma.
Note that the video shows Craig's
early version. He later added the plugboard to
his Enigma.
DECODING THE LETTERS OF
MARY, QUEEN OF SCOTS 29 Sep 2024
When
George Lasry, Norbert Biermann and Satoshi
Tomokiyo started deciphering more than fifty
letters they found in the Bibliothèque Nationale
de France, they unexpectedly discovered that
these were letters presumed lost, written by the
imprisoned Mary, Queen of Scots (1542-1587,
painting circa 1559).
In 1567, Mary Stuart was forced
to abdicate, and imprisoned in the Scottish
Lochleven castle, but escaped the next year to
England. Since Mary had a claim to the English
throne, she was a threat to her cousin, Queen
Elizabeth I, who kept her captive in England.
Still, Mary remained involved in plots to take
the throne.
In 1586, Anthony Babington, the
leader of a plot to assassinate Queen Elizabeth,
established a secret communications channel for
Mary Stuart. However, Sir Francis Walsingham,
secretary and spymaster of Elizabeth, had placed
several spies in Mary's circle, compromising the
Babington plot. When Mary did not object to the
assassination of Elizabeth in a letter to
Babington, she sealed her fate. Her conspirators
were executed in September 1586 and Mary Stuart,
44 years old, followed on 8 February 1587.
Mary was known to correspond
with here allies through encrypted letters, but
many of those were believed to have been lost.
Most of the recently discovered letters were
addressed to Michel de Castelnau, the French
ambassador to Londen. Although they are 445 years
old, deciphering them still proved to be a
complex task for the codebreakers. The team later
found plaintext versions of some of those letters
in the British Archives, leaked to Walsingham by
a mole in the French embassy. These confirmed the
correct deciphering of some messages from the
Bibliothèque Nationale de France.
A fascinating story of deceit
and treason, uncovered by the three talented
codebreakers in 2023. Their codebreaking
achievement is published in detail on Cryptologia. On the Cryptiana website
are the ciphers of Mary, Queen of Scots, the
discovery and codebreaking of 50+ letters, and
simulated paper-and-pencil codebreaking of a
ciphered letter. See also the DECRYPT project.
Below the excellent talk by
George Lasry, explaining in detail how they
deciphered the messages, and to understand the
animosities between Mary and Elizabeth, watch the
BBC documentary.