I forget who told me this story, but at some point the British tried a crazy known-plaintext attack by planting handwritten notes in dead German soldiers’ pockets that contained an “important message” to be sent, and then in the following days they would attempt to decrypt enigma communications against the known plaintext.
“This telegram must be closely paraphrased before being communicated to anyone”
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Re: “This telegram must be closely paraphrased before being communicated to anyone”
#82I forget who told me this story, but at some point the British tried a crazy known-plaintext attack by planting handwritten notes in dead German soldiers’ pockets that contained an “important message” to be sent, and then in the following days they would attempt to decrypt enigma communications against the known plaintext.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gardening_(cryptanalysis)
That's not what gp was talking about.
Re: “This telegram must be closely paraphrased before being communicated to anyone”
#83ETA: Note that I appear to have been mistaken about the connection to ENIAC. Note that it is equally dangerous to send paraphrased messages using the same key (which is called sending messages "in depth"). This was used to crack the Lorenz ("Tunny") cipher. Interestingly Bletchley Park hadn't gotten their hands on a Lorenz machine, they cracked it based on speculation. And it lead to the development of the first tube…
I visited Bletchley Park museum this summer when in London. Can recommend and it's also really easy to get there; just a 50 minute train ride from London Euston station, and 5 minute walk to the museum. Entire family enjoyed the museum (have two teenage kids). There is also the "National Museum of Computing" located next to it which contains the Bombe, Collosus and related equipment. As I understand it most (or all?)…
I recall from my own visit that the electrical transformers are supposedly original. So, the National Museum of Computing justifies calling its Colossus a rebuild rather than a replica, since it is made with some original parts.
Re: “This telegram must be closely paraphrased before being communicated to anyone”
#84ETA: Note that I appear to have been mistaken about the connection to ENIAC. Note that it is equally dangerous to send paraphrased messages using the same key (which is called sending messages "in depth"). This was used to crack the Lorenz ("Tunny") cipher. Interestingly Bletchley Park hadn't gotten their hands on a Lorenz machine, they cracked it based on speculation. And it lead to the development of the first tube…
This is the first I’ve heard of Colossus influencing the ENIAC. I was under the impression that Colossus was so secret that ENIAC was designed independently and (falsely) touted as the first tube computer prior to Colossus’ existence being declassified. I’m not sure if I’m misremembering that though.
The ENIAC seems to be the first general purpose electronic digital computer. It wasn't stored program, though - no good memory devices. Plugboards and lots of rotary switches. Took hours to load a new program. Unrelated to Colossus.
The first machine to have it all was the Manchester Baby.[1] Now this really was sort of a descendant of Colossus, with some of the same people involved. It was mostly a test rig for the Williams Tube memory device.
Once there was something that could do the job of RAM, things took off quickly. Within two years there were quite a number of stored program electronic digital computer projects. Electronic arithmetic worked fine, but everybody had been stuck on the memory problem.
Re: “This telegram must be closely paraphrased before being communicated to anyone”
#85This reminds me of similar discussions we've been having about this topic. The key challenge I see is implementation at scale.
Re: “This telegram must be closely paraphrased before being communicated to anyone”
#86LLMs would be amazing for this
I wouldn't put an LLM in the loop for anything that has security implications.
Re: “This telegram must be closely paraphrased before being communicated to anyone”
#87[deleted]
Re: “This telegram must be closely paraphrased before being communicated to anyone”
#88Earlier quoted context omitted.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gardening_(cryptanalysis)
That's not what gp was talking about.
It was more of an allusion than a reference, but expectations in communication ought be acknowledged and accommodated, so I apologize if you misunderstood my point as it wasn’t clear from context. Please see my edit.
(My prior comment referenced Operation Mincemeat at the time of its reply, for those reading after the fact.)
Re: “This telegram must be closely paraphrased before being communicated to anyone”
#89Earlier quoted context omitted.
I visited Bletchley Park museum this summer when in London. Can recommend and it's also really easy to get there; just a 50 minute train ride from London Euston station, and 5 minute walk to the museum. Entire family enjoyed the museum (have two teenage kids). There is also the "National Museum of Computing" located next to it which contains the Bombe, Collosus and related equipment. As I understand it most (or all?)…
A personal Bletchley Park anecdote: my grandfather, an electrical engineer, staffed a radio listening station during the war, and every evening a motorcycle dispatch rider would take the day’s intercepts away to a secret location. It was more than 20 years before my grandfather figured out they went to Bletchley. In the 1980s the Bletchley museum project put out a call for wartime electrical components so they could…
What an incredible story, thank you for sharing.
Re: “This telegram must be closely paraphrased before being communicated to anyone”
#90As close to the original as possible not using the same phrasing? Obviously?