4 ms·
Encryption enthusiast deciphers ‘Unsolvable’ WWI Encryption Code
- ColinWright 13y agoThis article describes this as a "double transportation cipher" - which is incorrect. It's more correctly described in the article submitted nearly a week ago here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6960168 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6960168 That also has a link to a more complete description: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Double_transposition_cipher http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Double_transposition_cipher
- throwaway_yy2Di 13y ago"During World War I, the German military used a double columnar transposition cipher, changing the keys infrequently. The system was regularly solved by the French, naming it Übchi, who were typically able to quickly find the keys once they'd intercepted a number of messages of the same length, which generally took only a few days. However, the French success became widely known and, after a publication in Le Matin, the Germans changed to a new system on 18 November 1914. [1]" https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Double_transposition_cipher#Double_transposition https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Double_transposition_cipher#Do... Courtesy of M. Édouard Snoden.
- nicolasbn 13y agoI think you meant: Mr. Édouard Neigedon.
- anonymousexit 13y agoAre we all Germans now?
- adamnemecek 13y agoOT but 4MB sure is a lot for a static site.
- gejjaxxita 13y agoI don't know much about encryption - can someone explain why if this was considered so "unbreakable" it was abandoned as a method so long ago?
- wmil 13y agoMany codes are unbreakable (or are effectively so) if you only use them once, statistical attacks become possible with multiple messages. In this case if you send two messages of the same length with the same code both can be broken. Also it's a rearrangement of the letters in the message. So a short message with distinct letters like 'Invade Pyatigorsk' could be easily cracked without knowing the code.