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Dr. Jens Altenburg - 3rd Place (Soemmerda, Germany)
SX Cipher Machine
Downloads for this project:
All files and information © 2006 Dr. Jens Altenburg.
Project Description:
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Click on Image for a close-up
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Secrets are not only part of a modern world; as long as mankind exists, secrets and safe communication will play an important role in history. Sir Walsingham, secretary of Queen Elisabeth I. of England, discovered a conspiracy by deciphering the secret correspondence between Maria Stuart and King Phillip II. of Spain. The infamous "Zimmermann" cable in World War I was another famous piece of deciphering.
Beginning with the first cipher algorithms in the early past a lot of different ways to keep information safe and secret have been found. Most of them based on an exchange of the usual alphabetical order of the letters, i.e 'A' comes to 'X', 'E' to 'B',... This simple cipher is the so called Caesar ciphering method and easy to break by statistical calculations. Other methods are more complex and will be a challenge for deciphering. There are a lot of examples for ciphering methods provided above.
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Click on Image for a close-up
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One of the most important deciphering story is the breaking of the ENIGMA cipher machine in World War II. The Germans developed the ENIGMA for wireless communication. During war it is a fundamental importance to have a safe and secret way of transferring information. Breaking the ENIGMA is a thrilling story of Polish, French, and British scientists and technicians. In the result of their work one of the first computers, the Colossus, was built.
A many people and a lot of resources were needed to break the code, but in the result the "ULTRA - Project" deciphered the ENIGMA secrets. The code was broken, and the intercepted information aided in the Germans losing the war.
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