FS-5000.

This is coolbert:

More Gladio stuff!

From the CryptoMuseum Internet web site we have details of the NATO "secure" radio system to be used by Gladio stay-behind units in case of Soviet invasion, conquest and occupation of western Europe.

A "secure" radio system under a project called HARPOON. That final product the FS-5000 system.

"Because of the wide variety of (incompatible) radios, and because of the increasing danger of using Radio Amateurs as operators . . . [it was] decided in the late 1970s to order the development of a pan-European system for communication between all stay-behind organizations in Europe."

"It was also decided that the equipment should no longer use Morse codes but digital data signals, protected by serious cryptography. The equipment had to be fully automatic, so that it could be operated by a non-technical user".

"The project was given the code name HARPOON and in late 1980 . . . In 1985 the highly adaptive HF radio set was ready for use and . . . became known as the FS-5000"

The entire FS-5000 apparatus.

"The system was capable of sending digitally encrypted messages over distances of more than 6000 km [4,750 miles] in under one second."

EVIDENTLY GLADIO SECURE NOT SO SECURE AS BELIEVED HOWEVER?

"The East Germans . . . managed to decode the BND's [Bundesnachrichtendienst] orders to members of the clandestine 'Gladio' group, which was intended to continue anti-communist operations in the event of a Warsaw Pact invasion of Western Europe". East Germans as the Stasi.

[BND the West German secret service. Stasi the East German secret service. Both the equivalent of the American CIA.]

Compromise the BND communications to their agents and you compromised the entire NATO network?

The FS-500 did not come on line until just before the Cold War came to a close? Other ciphers and codes of the Gladio contingents were "read" by the Stasi but not the FS-5000? Don't count on it.

As detailed by CryptoMuseum Operation Gladio units over a period of decades having a host of radio systems at their disposal. FS-5000 unique [??] in having embedded crypto? This is unknown to me.

coolbert.

Mr. Lincoln.

This is coolbert:

A debt of gratitude to Freeper, Mr. Wayne G. Barker and the Aegean Park Press for insight into this matter.

MORE CRYPTO! From that era of the American Civil War.

Secret and enciphered messages from the American President to his immediate subordinates. One would assume issues of the highest priority discussed. Messages in cipher but never "read". Until NOW we hope!

"Crowdsourcing a modern means to crack code on Civil War texts"

"The Wall Street Journal reported on a trove of Civil War era telegrams — many of them to and from Abraham Lincoln — that have never been decoded."

"The telegrams are owned by the Huntington Library, Art Collections and Botanical Gardens in San Marino. They have started a project, 'Decoding the Civil War,' to transcribe and decipher their collection of nearly 16,000 Civil War telegrams between Lincoln, his Cabinet and Union Army officers. About a third of the telegrams were written in code."

"The library is crowdsourcing the project through the largest online platform for collaborative volunteer research, Zooniverse. They hope about 75,000 volunteers will sign up and make quick work of the deciphering"

Those Federal cryptographic systems of the American Civil War the nature of which for the most part well understood..

What is called route transposition ciphers. Entire words transposed rather than individual letters and characters. Route ciphers with random groups added to make more difficult the task of the enemy to "read" secure messages That highest level echelon [Lincoln in direct communication with his immediate subordinates in the field] also having embedded CODE within the messages to guarantee security and further the difficulties as would be the case for the eavesdropper and unintended recipient.

Cryptographic system as deemed ADEQUATE!! AND WERE!

Leopold von Ranke and those who adhere to his school of historiography would be greatly pleased with this concerted effort of the Zooniverse? Original source documents might allow for a new perspective on events as they occurred during the American Civil War? Messages the content of which was to be seen only by concerned parties and at the highest echelon of command of most significant importance in all cases!

Mr. Lincoln himself I would be impressed? You bet!

coolbert.

Lorenz.

This is coolbert:

Lorenz has been found! At least half of it!

German "code" machine from the era of the Second World War considered to be MUCH MORE secure than the Enigma cryptograph. Used the Germans for high-level secure communications as would be the case direct from Hitler to his immediate subordinates. Personal and of the highest priority! From A.H to . . .!

A portion of such machine [Lorenz} purchased from eBay on line auction.

"'Hitler's code machine' snapped up off eBay for £9.50 after discovery in Essex shed"

"Part of a covert code machine used by Adolf Hitler has been snapped up off eBay for £10 after being discovered in an Essex shed."

"Lorenz was a key tool in the use of strategic communications and was far more complicated than the highly publicized Enigma machines."

Lorenz a COMPLICATED contraption and apparatus as can be seen from the image of the assembled machine. You can see the keyboard/printer on the far right for comparison/scale sake.

WITHIN A PERIOD OF TWO WEEKS THE FAMOUS SWEDISH MATHEMATICIAN ARNE BEURLING ABLE TO PROVIDE A GENERAL SOLUTION TO LORENZ. A REMARKABLE ACHIEVEMENT!

Anyone know of a history of the Second World War based on decrypts of messages enciphered with the Lorenz machine?:

coolbert.

Codebooks!

This is coolbert:

"Washington, July 15, 1863."

"To W. G. Fuller Memphis, Tenn.:

Clara McClellan applause query spare safe occupied for present sufficiently your forces prentiss if the world valley the render have caught bear line you to he hard chorus to all in zebras run if the can operate wafers lean towards on send wiley blubber up.

T. T. Eckert."

Code books have been found! After one hundred and fifty years!

This is noteworthy. Has a historical significance that cannot be denied.

From a recent edition of the Chicago Tribune:

"Union code books surface, bit too late for Johnny Reb"

"California institution acquires secret messages from Lincoln"

NOT ONLY the secret messages as sent by President Lincoln SECURE to his subordinates but the basic code book[s] used to encrypt/decrypt the messages!

From the family collection of Thomas Eckert: "a pioneering telegraph operator who ran the U.S. military's telegraph office at the War Department in Washington D.C. from 1863 to 1867."

"LOS ANGELES - - A long-unknown, 150-year-old trove of handwritten ledgers and calfskin-covered code books, which give a potentially revelatory glimpse in . . . the day-to-day exchanges between Abraham Lincoln and his generals . . . now belongs to a California research institution."

That American Civil War being considered to be the FIRST modern war, replete with the use of technology, including Morse telegraphy, allowing for the simultaneous and coordinated maneuver of troops at distance from one another. Messages secured on the Union side with an ad hoc system a route transposition cipher with embedded code, entire words transposed as opposed to the common practice of transposing ONLY individual letters. [thanks in all instances for the message traffic to the W.G. Barker and his editing of the book: "The History of Codes and Ciphers in the United States Prior to World War One"

See my prior blog entry regarding other long-lost secret messages from the American Civil War and their recent decryption.

And as for the secret message as sent by Eckert to Fuller the decryption reads:

"Washington, 10:30 A.M., July 15, 1863."

"For General S.A. Hurlbut, Memphis, Tenn.:

If General W. T. Sherman's movements have sufficiently occupied the enemy to render your line safe, send all the forces you can spare to Brig. General Prentiss to operate on Price's rear if he advances toward Missouri.

H. W. Halleck Major General"

Sophistication and security adequate for the purpose AS IT WAS AT THE TIME. Those Union cryptographers of the period able to frustrate and flummox adversaries totally impervious to the efforts of Confederate eavesdroppers!

coolbert.

Georges Painvin.

This is coolbert:

"This cipher [ADFGVX] was so extremely difficult to solve that many have 

marveled at the brain that originally discovered the underlying principles of solution."

That "many" marveling at the brain and the analytical ability of the French Army Captain and cryptanalyst of World War One [WW1] fame, Georges Painvin.

A man, Georges, to which the famous H.O. Yardly gives the highest possible accolades:

1. From the: "American Black Chamber" by H.O. Yardley.

"When I explained my mission to Colonel Cartier, he immediately called in Captain Georges Painvin, the great cipher genius of France. For weeks I had looked forward to meeting the brilliant Painvin, the most skillful cryptographer in all the Allied Governments . . . . when Painvin entered the room, Colonel Cartier was talking on the telephone, and I had the opportunity to this slender cold-eyed young man . . . Painvin's swarthy drawn face registered zero, as Colonel Cartier introduced me and explained my mission. If anything, he seemed slightly bored at the idea of an American coming to Paris to study French cipher methods. When we were alone in his office, however, and he saw that I followed his analysis of several difficult problems, he gradually thawed out . . . I became an intimate member of his household and spent many quiet evenings there, listening to his brilliant discussion of cryptography."

2. From the "Chinese Black Chamber" by H.O. Yardley:

"The situation in Europe [May 1940] has given all of us the jitters . . . I went to the French embassy and volunteered for service in France . . . The great Captain Georges Painvin must be back at his old job in Paris, doing his old tricks. I think he would like to have me with him. The little I know about ciphers I owe to study in France under him during the World War."

"Georges Jean Painvin (1886-1980) was a French cryptanalyst during the First World War. His most notable achievement was the breaking of the ADFGVX cipher in June 1918."

"Before the First World War, Painvin taught paleontology and geology. He performed cryptanalytic work for the French army after a chance encounter with a member of the French Bureau du Chiffre."

Painvin in those years prior to WW1:

* A mining engineer.
* A professor of geology and paleontology.

And during those war years, an autodidact, a self-taught genius at the esoteric and arcane art and skill of making and breaking ciphers and codes. A CRYPTOLOGIST of the highest order as defined in the modern terminology.

"cryptology - - noun - -  2. the science and study of cryptanalysis and cryptography."


The solution of the ADFGVX cipher coming at a time when it did, during those German final offensives [1918] on the Western Front, allowing French reserves to be massed at the time and place where most needed, thwarting forever the ability of the German to deliver the "knock-out" punch as desired by the High Command in Berlin.

It is undeniably true that the achievement of Painvin did play a crucial role during that latter stage of the war, when the situation was still in doubt, many lives saved in the process!

Georges Painvin however, NOT active in cryptologic pursuits during the inter-war years or for that matter during any time of WW2. Georges not called back to active duty or serving in his prior capacity of cryptanalyst, "reading" German military ciphers and codes.

Georges during those inter-war years very active and very successful in the commercial sphere, an important and esteemed mover and shaker in the French chemical and mining industry, Georges apparently not having any role to play in "war work" prior to the Battle of France and French defeat in 1940.

Painvin and Yardley both for a period of over twenty years had been "out of the loop" as well. NOT so conversant in the latest cryptologic advancements, the development of MACHINE CIPHERS of a complexity far beyond that of the ADFGVX cipher or other hand "paper and pencil" ciphers and codes as used by the various combatants during WW1?

coolbert.

Paper & Pencil II.

This is coolbert:

Paper & pencil German. 

Conclusion.

Doppelkastenschliissel & RS-44.

It should not be also thought that ONLY the Japanese military continued to use what are called "pencil and paper" cryptographics during WW2!

The German Doppelkastenschliissel and Rasterschlussel 44 also pencil and paper cryptographs of some rather surprisingly high level of security, and NOT a machine.

The Doppelkastenschliissel cryptograph the knowledge of which was obtained only by CAPTURE on the battlefield!

"During the North African campaign, the British overran a German signal center and discovered the nature of the system."

"A World War II German Army Field Cipher and How We Broke it"

"The system was used by all levels of the German army, from army groups on down, seemingly where the highest-level means (Enigma) were not necessary or available. The encryption method was a clever variation of the Playfair that rendered breaking very difficult . . . To the enemy it was Doppelkastenschliissel (Two-Box Cipher)."

And from the German BuHa security web site we have a description of the German WW2 era field cipher Rasterschlussel 44. Paper and pencil again and not a machine but very effective. Used by army units in the field to secure their communications and doing so famously.

"RASTERSCHLÜSSEL 44 - THE EPITOME OF HAND FIELD CIPHERS"

"rs44 also served as a replacement procedure provided for the enigma. No other hand methods of the second world war ultimately proved as safe as the rs44. Allied designated the proceed as unbreakable when it was used correctly. Only 29% percent of intercepted rs44 news could be decrypted with an unbearably long time warp of about two weeks. Contrast, a quota is 72% decrypted Enigma messages, which could be deciphered also almost in real time."

Finally, thanks to the Geoff Sullivan web site Hut Six we have a download available of the RS 44 for your use - - free! Secure your own comms and good luck.

Granted that all these secure cryptographic methods are NOT unconditionally safe. But provide for what was at the time an adequate degree of secrecy.

Paper and pencil? Bowed but not broken? You judge.

coolbert.

Paper & Pencil I.

This is coolbert:

Paper and pencil Japan!

Much has been written about the Ultra secret and the ability of the western allies to "read" the most secret and encrypted radio traffic of German military during World War Two [WW2]. German secret radio messages encrypted by the Enigma cipher machine "read' with more or less impunity by the Polish, French, British and finally the Americans [courtesy of the British!]. Secret radio messages as sent by the higher military command echelons "read" in real-time by the allies, producing  action-able intelligence, a war-winning measure.

Much has also been written about the Japanese Purple cryptographic machine during WW2 and the ability of the allies [British, Americans, Soviets] to "read" again with more or less impunity "secret" and supposedly secure radio traffic of the Japanese foreign ministry - - ambassadorial and diplomatic messages of the highest order, producing in real-time action-able intelligence, a war-winning measure.

Too - -  much has been written about the Japanese enciphered naval codes [i.e. JN-25] as used before and during WW2, read with impunity for the duration of the war by both the Americans and British, high-level operational command radio traffic the "reading" of which produced an abundance of real-time action-able intelligence, a war-winning measure. Enciphered naval codes, code with an additive sequence, NOT a machine cipher!

Far less, a paucity of information, almost absolutely nil even, has been written about the field army ciphers and codes of the Japanese  during WW2. WHAT EXACTLY were the allied radio interceptors and analysts of all nationalities doing during that period of prior to and during the war with regard to Japanese army codes and ciphers remains a mystery? NOT an exact mystery, but nonetheless, the effort made against the cryptographics of the Japanese army in the field seems to be lacking when compared to similar efforts made against the ciphers and codes of the German and even the Japanese diplomatic corps.

The cryptologic effort during WW2 against the Japanese army field ciphers and codes was primarily the responsibility of the Central Bureau? Basically an Australian endeavor with a very strong American adjunct? an effort that did not come into fruition and produce action-able results until 1943?

"Central Bureau did not break any high level Japanese Army codes until mid-1943 with the Water Transport code."

"On 15 January 1944, an Australian patrol . . . discovered . . . the complete cipher library of the Imperial Japanese Army's 20th Division . . . Central Bureau used the captured code books to solve the Japanese Army's main cipher system. This intelligence windfall arrived exactly when MacArthur was most prepared to take advantage of it."

Central Bureau finally make progress into Japanese field army ciphers and codes rather late in the game, the Japanese army preferring and using an enciphered code system in contrast to a MACHINE CIPHER!

"BREAKING OF THE JAPANESE ARMY'S CODES, THE"

Allied cryptologic personnel in the Pacific theatre lacked more than anything else that necessary measure of raw "secure" radio traffic available for examination, evaluation, analysis, "reading"!

From the Chinese Black Chamber by H.O. Yardley we have this entry:

"Long ago I sent wireless operators and Japanese translators with equipment to the fronts, east, north, south. All to no avail. They are too cowardly to remain close enough to the front to intercept long wave messages for study and decipherment . . . We can, of course, receive shortwave messages here in Chungking, but what is needed are front-line dispatches, which, for technical reasons, are sent long wave. Such messages can be heard only near the scene of battle."

Long wave transmissions. Those radio transmissions using the frequencies below the standard medium wave broadcast band frequencies, that is to say, below 550 KHZ NOT short wave [3-30 MHZ]. Radio transmitters as used by the Japanese army in the field using long wave frequencies, very reliable under all conditions but only usually hear-able at shorter distances, several hundred miles at most, and that under the most ideal of conditions. First the Chinese and then the various allied nations active in the Pacific war against the Japanese because of "technical reasons" NOT able to intercept that abundance of radio traffic allowing for swift and sure analysis and decryption of secret messages.

That is all there to it? A mere matter of technology. The radio intercept stations of the allies had to be close to copy the secret radio messages of the Japanese army, encrypted using a two-part code with an additive sequence. The quantity of traffic was for a long time inadequate for careful and discerning analysis to be made? NO more than that?

coolbert.

Soviet SIGINT I.

This is coolbert:

Soviet SIGINT [signals intelligence].

From a Military Thoughts blog entry from way back when now:

 "Ciphering machines started to be used about this time: 'Enigma' (Germany) . . . 'Purple Code' (Japan) . . . now is a well-known fact: 'Enigma' had been broken by American and British specialists, the 'Purple Code'; – by American and Russian code-breakers in 1939 – 1940."

"That the Russian was able to “read” the Japanese Purple crypto machine was news to me. I have not seen this referenced anywhere else. My understanding was that the Americans and the British each independently arrived at a cryptanalytic solution to Purple, but NOT the Russian."

NOW thanks to Google books and: "The sword and the shield: the Mitrokhin archive and the secret history of ... By Christopher Andrew, Vasili Mitrokhin" we have the answer:

"In February 1941 the NKVD cryptanalysts had been integrated into a new and enlarged Fifth (Cipher) Directorate, with at its heart a research section responsible for the attack on foreign codes and ciphers . . . In the summer of 1941 a group . . . replicated the success of American codebreakers a year earlier in breaking the main Japanese diplomatic cipher, codenamed by the Americans and since known to Western historians as PURPLE."

[this Fifth Directorate is a combined effort of the NKVD [secret police] and the GRU [military intelligence]? This is not entirely clear but seems to be the case!]

There is rather considerable significance to this. Prior to - - during - - and at the very end of the Second World War [WW2], the Soviets WERE able to "read" the most secret messages of the Japanese diplomatic corps, quite often that traffic dealing with military matters, AND especially in the aftermath of German surrender, the secret machinations of the Japanese to use the Soviets to arrange for a NEGOTIATED SURRENDER TO THE ALLIED FORCES [British and American]!

Stalin feigning cooperation with the Japanese, all the while preparing for Soviet entry into the war on the side of the allies, against Japan, typical duplicity of the dictator, aided and abetted to a large degree by PURPLE intelligence of the highest order and importance.

The record now crystal clear, the question answered, the full significance understood! 

coolbert.

Menzer.

This is coolbert:

Well - - lemme' tell you the story about a man name of Fritz.

Fritz Menzer. German national during the era of World War Two [WW2].

A machinist, a mechanic, an autodidact, a cryptologist, a man most proficient at the making and breaking of codes and ciphers.

"au·to·di·dact – noun - a person who has learned a subject without the benefit of a teacher or formal education; a self-taught person."

A man who could have almost single-handedly won WW2 for the Germans?

From a previously highly classified U.S. government document.

Fritz - - using his considerable talents and mechanical aptitude - - able to design and make changes - - improving by magnitudes the security of the electro-mechanical cryptographic systems as used by the German military and government during WW2. Enigma and Hagelin cryptographic machines both!

If and when the ideas and design concepts of Fritz Menzer had been implemented, that unique and most valuable source of intelligence [Ultra] as had by the western allies [British and American] during WW2 would have been rendered null and void!

Throughout the war, the German was keenly aware that their cipher system most relied upon to provide security for messages encrypted and sent via radio communications, the electro-mechanical apparatus known as the Enigma, was susceptible to being "read".

The man responsible for this appreciation, this "awareness" was Fritz? I think so.

The efforts of Fritz either too late or not at all, that special source of intelligence [Ultra] so vital to the war effort of the western allies NOT rendered "null and void"!

coolbert.

Message!

This is coolbert:

"Gen'l Pemberton:

"You can expect no help from this side of the river.

Let Gen'l Johnston know, if possible, when you

can attack the same point on the enemy's lines.

Inform me also and I will endeavor to make a diversion.

I have sent some caps (explosive devices).

I subjoin a despatch [sic] from General Johnston."

This is so very cool!!

Made some minor headlines the other day.

A secret message, encrypted, from the time of the American Civil War, ONLY NOW decrypted.

A message to Pemberton, the commander of the embattled Confederate garrison at Vicksburg. The garrison eventually surrendering en masse, a terrible defeat for the Confederacy, the southern states in rebellion cut into two pieces as a result, the capitulation occurring on the same day as the climactic defeat of the Army of Northern Virginia at Gettysburg. A one-two punch that the south never recovered from.





"Civil War Message in a Bottle Decoded: No Help Coming"

"AP RICHMOND, Va. - A glass vial stopped with a cork during the Civil War has been opened, revealing a coded message to the desperate Confederate commander in Vicksburg on the day the Mississippi city fell to Union forces 147 years ago."

"A retired CIA code breaker . . . cracked the code in several weeks. "

"A Navy cryptologist independently confirmed Gaddy's interpretation."

"The code [actually a cipher] is called the 'Vigenere cipher,' a centuries-old encryption . . . The code was widely used by Southern forces during the Civil War"

This is not a cryptographic system that would have posed a problem for the Union cryptologic personnel, if and when the message had been captured. Union cryptologic personnel during the American Civil War were VERY GOOD. In contrast, Confederate cryptologic personnel were VERY POOR!

[I speak in a modern manner when I refer to cryptologic personnel. NO SUCH term was understood during the period of the American Civil War. The same persons today called "signallers" also performed the task of decrypting captured enemy messages that were in cipher!!]

Pemberton too was reviled at the time as an incompetent commander! Much was made of the fact that Pemberton was OF NORTHERN BIRTH AND NOT A TRUE SOUTHERNER! Fact of the matter was that Pemberton faced an impossible situation for which there was no amelioration. Besieged troops, a garrison and towns people starving, a highly competent and aggressive Union commander [Grant] AND NOT ONE WHIT OF HELP AVAILABLE FROM ANY DIRECTION!! Pemberton was faced with surrender being the only option!

"As is often the case, those farthest from the scene of the action

tend to make the most noise, it being much easier to criticize

someone else for choosing certain death by starvation or bullet

than it is to face such a fate oneself."

HOW TRUE!

coolbert.

Math!

This is coolbert:

"How is mathematics in Göttingen now that it has been freed of the Jewish influence?" - - Rust.

"Mathematics in Göttingen? There is really none any more." - - Hilbert.

The above exchange and quote, David Hilbert, in conversation with the Nazi Minister of Education, Bernhard Rust. [1934]

David Hilbert, German mathematician and professor, one of the "most influential and universal mathematicians of the 19th and early 20th centuries."

The German university system, in the years prior to World War Two [WW2], being purged of those mathematicians of the highest quality, the ablest thinkers!

Mathematicians of the utmost quality and ability, being needed for the war effort [1939] and even BEFORE that, sound analytical and mathematical brains NOT being nurtured.

Germany lacking persons of the stature of an Arne Beurling [Sweden], Marian Rajewski [Poland], or Alan Turing [England].

Sound mathematical minds working in the field of cryptography.

Persons devising mathematical solutions to cryptographic problems of the most intricate and complex sort.

Germany, during WW2, lacking the brains and talent able to:

1. Devise cryptographic machines, those machines impervious to cryptanalytic attack based upon MATHEMATICAL CONCEPTS! Germany, able to design cipher machines to protect their own secret message traffic.

2. Devise general solutions, based upon mathematical concepts, that would allow German cryptanalysts to "read" the secret encrypted messages of the allied powers. Those messages enciphered by machines such as the SIGABA [USA] or the TYPEX [England]. Germany, able to READ the secret message traffic of their various enemies.

The German Enigma and the even more advanced Geheimschreiber as employed by the German during WW2 were insecure, both machines subjected to successful allied cryptanalytic attack, the GERMAN UNABLE TO READ THE SECRET MESSAGE TRAFFIC OF THE ALLIES!!

It is also reasonable to infer that the German also lacked the requisite persons, human calculators, those persons doing the various high-level mathematical calculations necessary for the development of atomic weaponry? A dedicated team of math prodigies needed to do the computational basics needed by those involved in German atomic bomb development and design [the Heisenberg team]!

Germany, during WW2, did have very good engineers, but lacked those persons say of the caliber of an Arne Beurling or even a Richard Feynman [Manhattan Project]!

No talented mathematicians - - no secure crypto and no atomic bomb!

coolbert.

Foss.

This is coolbert:

Yet another of those eccentric but very successful British "code breakers" [cryptanalysts].

"Hugh Rose Foss . . . was a British cryptographer. He was born in Kobe, Japan where his father (Hugh James Foss) was a missionary Bishop, and he learned Japanese. He was educated at Marlborough College and Christ's College, Cambridge."

"He joined the Government Code and Cipher School in December 1924 . . . In September 1934 Foss and Oliver Strachey broke the Japanese Naval Attache cipher"

"Hugh Foss, an eccentric 6ft 5in Scot, who wore a long straggly red beard, a kilt and sandals. Foss was a brilliant, but highly eccentric, codebreaker. His first major success came in 1934 when he broke a new machine cipher used by Japanese naval attachés in their embassies . . . Foss's efforts to construct a device to read the Japanese machine cipher did not have the same degree of sophistication."

[sophistication as meaning the use of primitive but effective specialized electronic computers, a mass of assistants, working aids, an abundance of intercepted material, etc. as used against the German military version Enigma cipher machine! Foss had NONE of this?]

Hugh Foss, a Scotsman noted for his eccentricities, to include:

* Scraggly red beard.
* Wearing a kilt and sandals.
* Of almost over-powering stature.
* Also a man noted for creating and popularizing a series of Scottish country dances.

A man well versed in the Japanese language as are few persons. Born and raised [?] in Japan, speaking the tongue as would a native speaker?

As was "Dilly" Knox with German non-stecker cryptographs, Foss, able to "read" secret messages as encrypted by Japanese cipher machines, using a non-mathematical approach to do so! Employing a Rube Goldberg type of apparatus, a "thing", to do so.

"The first trial was made in the office using a brown foolscap file cover with a collar stud, a piece of string and slots cut in the cover for the letters." But the device worked.

In those inter-war years [1918-1939], the Japanese employed a series of machine cryptographs, providing in each case [?] increasing and more formidable degrees of security against eavesdroppers. These machines included:

* RED. [in prototype and standard version] As used by the Japanese Navy and Foreign Office.

"91-shiki injiki("Type 91 print machine") in 1931. The year 1931 was year 2591 in the Japanese Imperial calendar. Thus it was prefixed "91-shiki" from the year it was developed. ("Type A Cipher Machine")"

* PURPLE. Used by the Japanese Foreign Office.

"97-shiki ōbun inji-ki ("System 97 Printing Machine for European Characters") or Angōki Taipu-B ("Type B Cipher Machine"), codenamed PURPLE by the United States, was a diplomatic cryptographic machine"

* JADE and CORAL. Cipher machines used by the Japanese Navy.

"JADE was the codename given by US code breakers to a Japanese World War II cipher machine. The Imperial Japanese Navy used the machinefor communications from late 1942 until 1944"

"In September 1934 Foss and Oliver Strachey broke the Japanese Naval Attache cipher"

This was obviously the RED machine. Primitive but effective non-mathematical techniques sufficing. British eccentric triumphant over wily and unscrutable Oriental [Japanaese].

"eccentricity is a reluctance to be bound by social, spiritual, scientific, political, esthetical or any other limitations [boundaries]"

. . . .

"[eccentrics] consciously choose to live and act sometimes ignoring such boundaries, which often leads to the new steps in the development and progress of the mankind"

Exactly! Foss was an eccentric - - not accepting the normal boundaries, able to go where no one else had gone before, exceeding the bounds, quite remarkably so too!

coolbert.

"Dilly".

This is coolbert:

"In 1937 Knox cracked the code of the commercial Enigma machines used by Franco's Nationalists in the Spanish Civil War"

Read here of Alfred Dillwyn "Dilly" Knox.

Another one of those eccentric but very talented persons the English are so fond of. Contributed in a significant manner to German defeat in both World Wars.

"Alfred Dillwyn 'Dilly' Knox . . . was a classics scholar at King's College, Cambridge, and a British codebreaker [cryptanalyst]. He was a member of the World War I Room 40 codebreaking unit, and later at Bletchley Park he worked on the cryptanalysis of Enigma ciphers until his death in 1943."

It should be noted that Knox was NOT a mathematician. WAS a classics scholar. NOTED for his linguistics abilities - - able to speak Greek, Latin, etc., in the ancient and modern forms. Knowledgeable in the works of the ancients, etc.

To defeat the commercial version of the Enigma cryptographic machine, Knox and his colleagues devised a LINGUISTIC approach to the matter, as opposed to the mathematical solution as applied to the military version of the same machine. The German military version of the Enigma possessing the plug board [stecker]

The technique as used by Knox was referred to as "rodding". Read at the link below an entire description of "rodding". Too complicated for me to follow.

" 'RODDING' - - This technique . . . was used to break messages that had been enciphered on Enigma machines that did not have a plug board."

Read further about "Dilly" Knox and the role of "Classics and Intelligence" here.

Students and scholars of the "classics" indeed have strong minds that are highly trained and are able to unravel puzzles such as was posed by Enigma. "Dilly" Knox is the archetype in this regard?

coolbert.

Crypto.

This is coolbert:

Here with some miscellaneous crypto stuff.

As reported by the TimesOnline, Franco, prior to the start of the Second World War [WW2], made use of the Enigma cryptographic machine.

"Nazi Enigma machines helped General Franco in Spanish Civil War"

Cryptographic machines of the Enigma [German] variety were used to secure the top-level communications of the insurgent Nationalist movement during the Spanish Civil War. A version of the Enigma that WAS NOT the German WW2 military version of the cryptograph, but rather the commercial, civilian variety.

"Franco needed to improve communications between his generals as encryption of top-secret messages was far from sophisticated: at the start of the war both sides used the same codes."

What is being said here? At the start of the Spanish Civil War, both the Nationalist [Franco] and Republican [leftists] were using the same cryptographic systems to secure their communications? There were military units both in rebellion and in allegiance to the Republican government of Spain that at the beginning of the war USED THE SAME CODES? Codes as opposed to cipher! This is not unreasonable.

To improve and secure his communications with his top commanders during the Spanish Civil War, Franco purchased: "ten Enigma machines from Germany"

These Enigma machines were: "commercial Enigma machines, invented in 1920, rather than the more effective and highly secret military version that the German army used so effectively during the war."

"the British code breaker Alfred Dilwyn Knox cracked the code of Franco's machine in 1937, but 'this information was not passed on to the Republicans'”

Both: 1. German and 2. Italian - - military units fighting on behalf of the fascist Spanish movement utilized the commercial version of the Enigma cryptograph. This was non-Stecker traffic, not employing the plug board as found in German WW2 versions of the Enigma.

Commercial versions of the Enigma continued to be used only very sparingly by the Italians during WW2. According to Calvocoressi in his book: "TOP SECRET ULTRA" - - "Although the Italians used a version of Enigma in the Spanish civil war, they made only sparing use of machine cyphers in the second World War . . . An exceptional Italian Enigma message contributed to the action off Matapan where the battleship Vittorio Veneto was damaged and three other Italian capital ships were sunk."

This WAS a commercial version of the Enigma? This is not clear! The German did not trust their Italian allies with secrets of any type? I think NOT!

coolbert.

Solomatin.

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"Do you understand what this means, the significance of this compromise? For more than seventeen years, Walker enabled your enemies to read your most sensitive military secrets. We knew everything! There has never been a security breach of this magnitude and length in the history of espionage. Seventeen years we were able to read your cables!"

This is well worth reading.

"Boris Solomatin Interview"

I had been searching for this particular item for some time and knew it existed, but could not find on the web until just now.

Solomatin, just recently deceased I believe, was the Soviet KGB resident [head spymaster] in Washington D.C. during the time that John Walker was recruited as an agent for the Soviet Union.

[it can be suggested that Walker recruited himself!!]

The infamous team of Walker/Whitworth compromised cryptographic gear, key lists, drawings, plans, etc., for ENTIRE families of American cipher equipment. NOT ONLY the gear itself, but the ENTIRE paradigm of American cryptographic "thought" was compromised as well, so in the opinion of Professor Cipher A. Devours. [NO, that name is not made up!]

"par·a·digm - - n. 1. One that serves as a pattern or model. 3. A set of assumptions, concepts, values, and practices that constitutes a way of viewing reality for the community that shares them, especially in an intellectual discipline."

I find this particular exchange between Solomatin and the author Earley to be most interesting:

Q: "Did you share the information that Walker provided to you with any other countries? Specifically, did the North Vietnamese know in advance about our bombing targets during the war?"

A: . . . "I know for myself what was done. I will tell you then that the information which was given to our allies, the socialist countries, was not much. It was always told in very general terms."

Q: "You weren't going to tip off anybody about him?"

A: "Precisely. The handing over to the Vietnamese in any form of information or data which we got from Walker, was contrary to our own interests . . . Judging from what I told you just now, you should make a writer's opinion and if you decide that the information from Walker was not handed over to the North Vietnamese . . . you will be making the correct one."

"I will presume that there will be those in your country who will not believe me when I say that Walker is not responsible for your failures in bombing in North Vietnam. To hell with them"

What is being spoken about here? From the book: "Breaking The Ring":

"They [North Vietnamese] usually had forewarning of the B-52 strikes. Even when the B-52's diverted to secondary targets because of weather, they [North Vietnamese] knew in advance which targets would be hit . . . It was uncanny. We never figured it out."

Again, the interview with Solomatin is well worth reading!

coolbert.

Messages?

This is coolbert:

The question has been asked: "Why do the bin laden's favor such a short barreled AK??"

We are speaking here about the snub-nosed version of the AK-74. The AKS-74U.

A weapon designed as a half-measure between an assault rifle and a sub-machine gun. A weapon originally intended to be used by armored vehicle crews, etc. For some reason, a favorite companion of the jihadi Al Qaeda villainous leadership of Osama, Zawahiri, etc.

"the AKS-74U . . . in terms of tactical deployment, bridges the gap between a submachine gun and assault rifle. It is intended for use mainly with special forces, airborne infantry, rear-echelon support units and armored vehicle crews."

A weapon, too, when displayed in the background during a visual communique from Al Qaeda leadership, functions as a signalling device of some sort? Allows operational units to know that secret messages have been forwarded to recipients, placed in a "lock box" and are now retrievable?

[this is all speculation on my part!!]

A signalling system relying upon the orientation of the AK in the image, with or without magazine! The AK is placed to either the right or left of Osama. The AK has an inserted magazine or is sans! The magazine, if inserted points to the right or left. Exact placement of the various elements has significance only discernible to the initiated? Jihadi operational units know the system and can readily determine if the message "lock box" needs to be emptied!

Secret messages sent via steganography [steg]. Secret messages embedded within an ordinary-appearing image, an image placed somewhere ["lock box"] on the Internet! Steganography, a cryptographic legacy of the Victorian era [used even before that too] long thought to be passe', outmoded, archaic and not even any longer worthy of consideration, NOW enjoying a remarkable comeback!!

"Steganography is the art and science of writing hidden messages in such a way that no-one apart from the sender and intended recipient even realizes there is a hidden message, a form of security through obscurity"

"International interest in R&D for steganography technologies and their commercialization and application has exploded in recent years. These technologies pose a potential threat to national security. Because steganography secretly embeds additional, and nearly undetectable, information content in digital products, the potential for covert dissemination of malicious software, mobile code, or information is great."

A signalling system as exemplified by the examples below:

There was even before 9/11, speculation that Al Qaeda was using the Internet to send secret communications to operatives. And in the aftermath of 9/11, such speculation became even more of a concern.

"a captured terrorist training manual, the "Technical Mujahid, a Training Manual for Jihadis" contains a section entitled 'Covert Communications and Hiding Secrets Inside Images.'"

The 9/11 commission did look into this matter - - their conclusion being - - INCONCLUSIVE!!?? NO ONE HAS A GOOD HANDLE ON THIS??!!

Go here to see an interesting and very informative presentation on steganography, courtesy of the crypto guru Elonka.

Please note too that these various steganography algorithms not only hide the message, but most allow for encryption as well. An interceptor, knowing that an image contains a hidden message, is faced with a cryptanalytic problem as well!! Algorithms that are readily available from the Internet, freeware and shareware both!!

Personally, I am fairly impressed with the entire modern steg concept. With something like 28 billion images on the Internet, 1 billion or so being viewed daily, the task of EVEN LOCATING AND EMBEDDED SECRET MESSAGE AND DECRYPTING SAME IS NEXT TO IMPOSSIBLE? Your average-everyday-jihadi has hit upon the "gold mine" of messaging that defies compromise? I fear so!

coolbert.