Assignment 13? 04/29/08

Section 12.2 on Enigma discussed perhaps the most famous application of cryptosystems in current knowledge and literature. The device itself is fairly simple operationally, it is a mechanical device that has one cog turn depending on the ones before it. The amazing security of the enigma is similar to the RSA system now in that brute force was difficult to crack it during WWII. The conceptualization of how to crack it was perhaps the only difficult part of the reading but due to previous experience studying Alan Turing and various cryptography texts the Enigma was broken due to a known plaintext attack in combination with the Turing Bombes.

Perhaps the most telling aspect of this reading is that what was once secure to brute force is now easily broken by more sophisticated computers. The RSA system may one day be thought to be as simple as Enigma is now. Another aspect of the Enigma story was Turing's brilliant use of the known plaintext to work out his massive bombe machines to maximum effect and greatly reduce the problem space.