The Enigma machine was an encryption device that was invented and used to protect commercial, diplomatic, and military communication in the early to mid-twentieth century. During World War II, Nazi Germany used it extensively in all departments of the German military. The Germans mistakenly felt that using the Enigma machine allowed them to communicate securely and thus gain a significant edge during World War II. Even the most top-secret messages were enciphered on the Enigma machine's electrical circuits, which was thought to be extremely safe.
Enigma uses an electromechanical rotor mechanism to scramble the alphabet's 26 letters. In normal operation, one person types text on the Enigma's keyboard while another records which of the 26 lights above the keyboard illuminates with each key stroke. The lit-up letters are the encoded ciphertext if plain text is input. When you enter ciphertext, it is converted back to plaintext. With each keypress, the rotor mechanism switches the electrical connections between the keys and the lights. The system's security is based on a series of machine settings that were modified on a daily basis during the conflict, depending on secret key lists that were distributed in advance, as well as other parameters that were altered for each communication. To effectively decrypt a message, the receiving station must know and use the precise settings used by the transmitting station.
While Nazi Germany made a succession of
upgrades to Enigma over time, which hampered decoding efforts to varied
degrees, they did not prevent Poland from cracking the machine before
the war, allowing the Allies to use Enigma-encrypted messages as a key
source of intelligence. Many experts believe that the flood of Ultra
communications information resulting from the deciphering of Enigma,
Lorenz, and other cyphers significantly shortened the war and may have
even changed the outcome.
No comments:
Post a Comment