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Importance of Cryptography
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The ever evolving method of cryptography, or sending messages through code, can be traced throughout the history of the world. Early Egyptians communicated through mysterious hieroglyphics. Ancient Greeks concealed secret messages beneath wax on tables or with tattoos on a slave’s head. During the Renaissance in Europe, citizens would use a substitution cipher to carry messages about political and religious revolutions. During World War I and previous battles, most countries used codes to contact their navy or army branches abroad, in case of enemy interception. Which subsequently brings us to World War II, and the major role that codebreaking played in the results of the war. Some of the main codebreaking events during World War II, the breaking …show more content…
Station HYPO sent orders to Midway by cable to broadcast a radio message that the island's water plant had broken down. The radio message was broadcast without encryption to ensure that Japan could read it if it was intercepted. The radio message was indeed intercepted by Japan and then reported by a message encoded in JN-25 stating that “AF’s” desalination plant was out of order. That message was intercepted by Station HYPO, and “AF” was thus confirmed as Midway. Station HYPO concluded that the attack would come in late May to early June 1942, while Washington argued late June. Station HYPO's intelligence persuaded US Pacific Fleet Commander Nimitz to risk the three remaining US carriers in the Pacific in an attempt to ambush the Japanese attack on Midway, which turned successful by sinking four Japanese carriers. Station HYPO won out again because they had succeeded in cracking JN-25, and later put “cryptanalysis on the map for military, it gave codebreakers the respect and reliability when they needed it the most.” (Carlson, 35:10-35:30). The intelligence that HYPO was able to gather and put into action helped change the course of the Japanese
Prior to the dispatch of September 24, the information which the Japanese sought and obtained about Pearl Harbor followed the general pattern of their interest in American Fleet movements in other localities. One might suspect this type of conventional espionage. With the dispatch of September 24, 1941, and those which followed, there was a significant and ominous change in the character of the information which the Japanese Government sought and obtained. The espionage then directed was of an unusual character outside the realm of reasonable suspicion. It was no longer merely directed to ascertaining the general whereabouts of ships of the fleet. It was directed to the presence of particular ships in particular areas; to such minute detail as what ships were double-docked at the same wharf….These Japanese instructions and reports pointed to an attack by Japan upon the ships in Pearl Harbor. The information sought and obtained, with such painstaking detail had no other conceivable usefulness from a military
This code actually proved vital to the success of the Allied efforts in World War II. Because the Code Talkers performed their duty expertly and efficiently, the Marines could count on both the ...
“AIR RAID ON PEARL HARBOR. THIS IS NO DRILL.” This is the message sent out by radioman Kyle Boyer at 7:58 a.m. Sunday December 7, 1941; a date which will live in infamy. The empire of Japan had attacked the United States’ Pacific Fleet based in Pearl Harbor. For months the US Intelligence community, as well as others around the world, had been intercepting and decoding transmissions from mainland Japan to their diplomats and spies in the US. We had cracked their Purple Code, and knew exactly what military intelligence was being transmitted back and forth. The Dutch also cracked Purple and informed our government of the Japanese plan and were shocked to hear reports that we were taken by surprised. Even more disturbing, months before the attack a British double agent, Dusko Popov, codenamed Tricycle, turned over to the F.B.I. detailed plans of the Japanese air raid, which he had obtained from the Germans. The government had the information, and did nothing with it.
Even before the battle started, America saw his attack coming. Japan had bombed the Dutch harbor in Alaska on the days of June 3rd and 4th. Japan landed there instead of on the islands of Attu and Kiska, in fear the United States might be there. There attacks failed when the plan to get the American fleet from Midway to aid the freshly bombed Dutch harbor. At 0900 hours an American patrol boat spotted the Japanese fleet seven hundred miles from Midway. At that point admiral Soroku Yamamoto’s plans of a sneak attack were over. Admiral fletcher commanded the U.S.S. Yorktown before it was sunk by the Japanese. Then at 0750, japan spots nine enemy (American) planes fifteen miles out. Tones, a Japanese cruiser, opened fire on the American pilots. Almost instantly if an American bomber plane were hit it would explode and go down. The bombers dropped their torpedoes to far from their targets, so the torpedoes didn’t land a single blow to Japan. At 1040 japan sent from Hiryu,...
In May of 1942, Japanese Admiral Isorosku Yamamoto devised a plan to draw the US Pacific fleet into battle where he could completely destroy it. To accomplish this master plan of his, he sought out the invasion of Midway Island which would provide a base for the Japan troops to attack Hawaii. Unfortunately for Yamamoto, America decrypted Japanese radio transmissions and Admiral Chester Nimitz was able to establish a counter attack against this offensive. Nimitz sent three aircraft carriers, The USS Enterprise, The USS Hornet and The USS Yorktown to destroy the Japanese. This is just a short overview of The Battle of Midway, or as commonly referred to as, the battle that changed the war. People argue that it had no affect on the war, but those critics couldn’t be farther from the truth. The Battle of Midway was the turning point of the war because it fully enters America into the war, it kicked off the Pacific Campaign, and it had Japan on the defensive, thus preventing them from helping The Axis Forces.
Enigma machines were built to make coding and decoding messages easier. As explained by Andrew Hodges, a mathematician and author, “The basic principle of using an Enigma machine was that its rotors and rings and plug board would be set up in some particular way, and then the message would be encrypted, the rotors automatically stepping round as this was done,” (171). So after the initial state of the machine was decided normal by the cipher clerk, the message would be typed on a message going out into a “26 letter keyboard,” stated by William Jacobs a writer and producer, encrypting it causing the rotors to move as he typed the message (1). During this part of the process the machine encodes the message by replacing the words with random groupings of letters. An electrical signal is sent through a maze of wires and every time a key is pressed the rotating wheels turned lighting up a specific bulb showing an encrypted letter. Upon receiving the code, the decipher would need to know the machine’s initial state to be able to use the message he received in any means of communication. He would then take the encrypted code and decipher it using an Enigma Machine. Although it seemed to be a very simple process Carol Marshall, Computer Science Manager states, “… the Germans refined and improve their encryption tool so that it was used constantly throughout the war,”
There have been many forms of codes that were used to send messages from group to group or person to person. One of the first know type of secret messaging was done by the Spartans of Ancient Greece around 484 to 425 BC. Secret messages were written on wooden tablets and covered with wax to make the tablet look like wood again. The message could then be read after the wax was removed. The slaves trying to escape used another type of secret messaging. Some messages that they would use to signal each other were quilts. Certain patterns on some quilts gave directions to these slaves in how to escape into Canada. In addition, they used secret words to help guide their fellow slaves to freedom. One such code phrase was "Follow the drinking gourd." This referred to the Big Dipper in the night sky. Because most slaves traveled at night because it was safer, that phrase gave them directions to their freedom. Those were just a sample of early types of secret codes.
The first sign of cryptography was documented on Egyptian scribes where non-standard hieroglyphs were used on clay tablets. (Whitman, 2011, p. 351) The Egyptians were the first documented people to use cryptography in 1900 B.C. (Whitman, 2011, p. 351) With cryptography surviving for so many years it is no wonder that it is still being used today to hide the real meaning of messages. There have been many advances since the time of the Egyptians but the purpose is still the same which is to keep information from unauthorized individuals.
Beginning with the question of leadership, as it is shown in the film, Admiral Chester Nimitz is portrayed as taking a high-risk high-reward gambit in the context of the US Navy’s WWII Pacific operations. Indeed, and in a context where the Americans were vastly outnumbered by the Japanese fleet, and wherein Midway itself represented a critical piece of ocean space in the context of the Pacific war’s grand strategic portrait, Nimitz was willing to believe in his sailors, and take the steps necessary to make the most of a difficult situation. Given that America had recently broken Japanese cryptography pertaining to its naval communications, Nimitz had a clear advantage over Yamamoto, in spite o...
Codes have been around for centuries ranging from wax, invisible ink, Morse code, the Enigma used by the Germans during World War II and now steganographic. Steganography is the latest form to insidiously hide information over the Internet without a trace of a file being altered. You are able to hide messages within images, voice or music. Steganography is an ancient method of hiding messages. Today messages are hidden in images and music. Steganography can be traced back to the ancient Greek who would write messages on tablets and cover them in wax. This made the tablets look blank and unsuspicious (Kolata, F4). Citizens of ancient civilizations would tattoo messages on their shaved heads. They would then let their hair grown in and travel across enemy lines to deliver the message (Seper, G1). During World War II the Allies placed a ban on flower deliveries with dates, crossword puzzles and even report cards (Kolata, F4) for fear of a message being hidden with in. Steganographers first alter their data by using encryption and then place the image into a pre-select image. Steganographers look for a piece of code that would be the least significant and look the least altered to the human eye (Kolata, F4), being as inconspicuousness and random as possible. This makes the messages undetectable unless you knew that there is a message hidden and you were able to crack the code.
Polyalphabetic substitution ciphers were developed during the Renaissance period in Europe and were the dominant type of encrypting for confidential messages during both World Wars. The Second World War was one that was considered especially technological. Cryptography was very important and whoever would break the other side’s code would have an enormous advantage in the war. In the end, the British with the help of Alan Turing broke the German code “Enigma” and the Americans broke the Japanese code “Purple.”
The main events that led to the battle of Midway are the attack on Pearl Harbor and the Coral Sea battle. Japan decided to attack Pearl Harbor (U.S. naval base), so that the U.S. would not interfere with Japan conquering the Dutch East Indies. They wanted oil and the land from the Indies. Japan attacked Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941. America didn’t know that Japan was attacking them, so it was a surprise attack and they were not prepared. Japan was attacking America’s ships and planes. Japan went home with the victory, but the next day America declared war on Japan. The Coral Sea battle lasted from May 4 –May 8 1942. This battle was fought by America and Australia vs Japan. Japan wanted to invade New Guinea and the Solomon Islands for their oil and land. Japan successfully invaded Tulagi in Solomon Islands on May 3- 4. May 8-7 both sides suffered great losses in aircraft and carriers because they were either sunk or damaged so both sides disengaged from the battle area. Both of these were important events that caused the battle of Midway.
Cryptography dates back as early as the Egyptian Hieroglyphs that were carved into the Pyramids and other Egyptian artifacts. They are necessary designed to be secret but do pose the intrigue of anyone who wants to read them. Unless you understand the glyphs you would not be able to understand the code. This is similar to cryptography today. Unless a person has a key to unlock the code, they are left with cipher text. Julius Caesar came up with one of the very first substitution ciphers. This was a simple shift cipher. The letters of the alphabet were shifted based on a predetermined number known only to those involved in the conversation. The Scytale was another early device used for cryptography. A leather strap was wound around a stick of a specific diameter. The message was then stamped into the leather. If the message was intercepted, the leather strap was useless without the stick with the specified diameter. Cryptography was used in both World Wars. The Germans had the Enigma machine which allowed the Germans to communicate securely with other German forces. This was very difficult to crack, but ultimately the code was broken. The United States and other Allies used several Native American tribes to use their native language to convey messages. The Navajo were very popular due to their languag...
That example does not compare to today’s cryptography, but the idea of creating a code for communication purposes ties the two together. Over the years, other forms of hidden message transmission has occurred, mostly for use in military actions. Around 100 BC, Julius Caesar used a form of encryption, a substitution cipher called the Caesar cipher, to give secret messages to his army generals. To explain further, “a cipher is an algorithm used for encryption or decryption” (Red Hat). So, in the substitution cipher, each character of text you see is represented as a different character according to the cipher
The study of code switching began in the mid-1970s with the work of the sociolinguist John J. Gumperz and Dell Hymes. Both investigated the communicative behavior within “speech communities”. Gumperz and Hymes defined “speech communities” as a, “group of speakers who share knowledge of the communicative constraints and options governing a significant number of social situations” (Diller). Gumperz and Hymes also fashioned the requirements needed to form a “speech community”. The requirements state, “All that is required is that there be at least one language in common and that rules governing basic communicative strategies be shared so that speakers can decode the social meanings carried by alternative modes of communication” (Diller). Once