|
cf6eb66
|
The first microdot to be spotted by the FBI was in 1941, following a tip-off that the Americans should look for a tiny gleam from the surface of a letter, indicative of smooth film.
|
|
|
Simon Singh |
|
f72689e
|
We would be in real trouble if everybody in GCHQ was like him, but we can tolerate a higher proportion of such people than most organizations. We put up with a number of people like him. Figure 66 James Ellis. (photo credit 6.4) One of Ellis's greatest qualities was his breadth of knowledge.
|
|
|
Simon Singh |
|
db93dd4
|
first ever military cryptographic device, the Spartan scytale, dating back to the fifth century B.C. The scytale is a wooden staff around which a strip of leather or parchment is wound,
|
|
|
Simon Singh |
|
3d5b34e
|
The German military were equally unenthusiastic, because they were oblivious to the damage caused by their insecure ciphers during the Great War. For example, they had been led to believe that the Zimmermann telegram had been stolen by American spies in Mexico, and so they blamed that failure on Mexican security. They still did not realize that the telegram had in fact been intercepted and deciphered by the British, and that the Zimmermann ..
|
|
|
Simon Singh |
|
de4b80d
|
Because a quantum computer deals with 1's and 0's that are in a quantum superposition, they are called quantum bits, or qubits (pronounced "cubits"). The advantage of qubits becomes even clearer when we consider more particles."
|
|
|
Simon Singh |
|
06d7998
|
diagonally polarized photons are in a quantum quandary when confronted by a vertical Polaroid filter.
|
|
|
Simon Singh |
|
c0903d2
|
half of them at random will be blocked, and half will pass through, and those that do pass through will be reoriented with a vertical polarization.
|
|
|
Simon Singh |
|
159507c
|
significance of the key, as opposed to the algorithm, is an enduring principle of cryptography. It was definitively stated in 1883 by the Dutch linguist Auguste Kerckhoffs von Nieuwenhof in his book La Cryptographie militaire: "Kerckhoffs' Principle: The security of a cryptosystem must not depend on keeping secret the crypto-algorithm. The security depends only on keeping secret the key."
|
|
|
Simon Singh |
|
2c990f8
|
250 qubits, it is possible to represent roughly 1075 combinations, which is greater than the number of atoms in the universe. If it were possible to achieve the appropriate superposition with 250 particles, then a quantum computer could perform 1075 simultaneous computations,
|
|
|
Simon Singh |
|
0e82f83
|
The letters a and l are the most common in Arabic, partly because of the definite article al-, whereas the letter j appears only a tenth as frequently.
|
|
|
Simon Singh |
|
efa15ae
|
the Arab scholars were also capable of destroying ciphers. They in fact invented cryptanalysis, the science of unscrambling a message without knowledge of the key.
|
|
|
Simon Singh |
|
d845320
|
What is the least number of weights that can be used on a set of scales to weigh any whole number of kilograms from 1 to 40?
|
|
|
Simon Singh |
|
25807dc
|
For decades, ENIAC, not Colossus, was considered the mother of all computers.
|
|
|
Simon Singh |
|
4d9df00
|
NSA employs more mathematicians, buys more computer hardware, and intercepts more messages than any other organization in the world. It is the world leader when it comes to snooping.
|
|
|
Simon Singh |
|
6a1cea9
|
In the 1970s, banks attempted to distribute keys by employing special dispatch riders who had been vetted and who were among the company's most trusted employees.
|
|
|
Simon Singh |
|
c331cb0
|
dispatch riders would race across the world with padlocked briefcases, personally distributing keys to everyone who would receive messages from the bank over the next week. As business networks grew in size, as more messages were sent, and as more keys had to be delivered, the banks found that this distribution process became a horrendous logistical nightmare, and the overhead costs became prohibitive.
|
|
|
Simon Singh |
|
390fa34
|
alphabetic scripts tend to have between 20 and 40 characters (Russian, for example, has 36 signs, and Arabic has 28).
|
|
|
Simon Singh |
|
e4fbd52
|
When ships carrying COMSEC material came into dock, crypto-custodians would march onboard, collect stacks of cards, paper tapes, floppy disks, or whatever other medium the keys might be stored on, and then deliver them to the intended recipients.
|
|
|
Simon Singh |
|
5ba4c44
|
scripts that rely on semagrams tend to have hundreds or even thousands of signs (Chinese has over 5,000).
|
|
|
Simon Singh |
|
efcef9d
|
Syllabic scripts occupy the middle ground, with between 50 and 100 syllabic characters. Beyond these two facts, Linear B was an unfathomable mystery.
|
|
|
Simon Singh |
|
ca5c041
|
Quantum cryptography is an unbreakable system of encryption.
|
|
|
Simon Singh |
|
8db6821
|
one-way functions are sometimes called Humpty Dumpty functions. Modular arithmetic, sometimes called clock arithmetic in schools, is an area of mathematics that is rich in one-way functions. In modular arithmetic, mathematicians consider a finite group of numbers arranged in a loop,
|
|
|
Simon Singh |
|
3635671
|
in the 1980s it was only government, the military and large businesses that owned computers powerful enough to run RSA. Not surprisingly, RSA Data Security, Inc., the company set up to commercialize RSA, developed their encryption products with only these markets in mind.
|
|
|
Simon Singh |
|
4e12dfd
|
Zimmermann believed that everybody deserved the right to the privacy that was offered by RSA encryption, and he directed his political zeal toward developing an RSA encryption product for the masses.
|
|
|
Simon Singh |
|
f1c402c
|
Zimmermann employed a neat trick that used asymmetric RSA encryption in tandem with old-fashioned symmetric encryption.
|
|
|
Simon Singh |
|
453f900
|
Pliny the Elder explained how the "milk" of the tithymalus plant could be used as an invisible ink. Although the ink is transparent after drying, gentle heating chars it and turns it brown. Many organic fluids behave in a similar way, because they are rich in carbon and therefore char easily."
|
|
|
Simon Singh |
|
7d4959d
|
It has been said that the First World War was the chemists' war, because mustard gas and chlorine were employed for the first time, and that the Second World War was the physicists' war, because the atom bomb was detonated. Similarly, it has been argued that the Third World War would be the mathematicians' war, because mathematicians will have control over the next great weapon of war--information.
|
|
|
Simon Singh |
|
d130cfc
|
The Vigenere cipher was called "le chiffre indechiffrable," but Babbage broke it;"
|
|
|
Simon Singh |
|
0ba833d
|
The security of a cryptosystem must not depend on keeping secret the crypto-algorithm. The security depends only on keeping secret the key.
|
|
|
Simon Singh |
|
7c9a56f
|
In June 1991 he took the drastic step of asking a friend to post PGP on a Usenet bulletin board. PGP is just a piece of software, and so from the bulletin board it could be downloaded by anyone for free. PGP was now loose on the Internet.
|
|
|
Simon Singh |
|
03b27c4
|
Rejewski had no idea of the day key, and he had no idea which message keys were being chosen, but he did know that they resulted in this table of relationships. Had
|
|
|
Simon Singh |
|
6b3ac02
|
The French had handed the information from Schmidt to the Poles because they believed it to be of no value, but the Poles had proved them wrong.
|
|
|
Simon Singh |
|
57e37db
|
One way to solve an encrypted message, if we know its language, is to find a different plaintext of the same language long enough to fill one sheet or so, and then we count the occurrences of each letter. We call the most frequently occurring letter the "first," the next most occurring letter the "second," the following most occurring letter the "third," and so on, until we account for all the different letters in the plaintext sample."
|
|
|
Simon Singh |
|
bd32e0e
|
destitute.
|
|
|
Simon Singh |
|
b67e5e1
|
Lisa Simpson is the kind of child we not only want our children to be, but also the kind of child we want all children to be.
|
|
|
Simon Singh |
|
319cce4
|
Q: What is the volume of a pizza of thickness a and radius z? 3 points A: pi.z.z.a
|
|
|
Simon Singh |
|
a357fd7
|
necessity is the mother of invention, then
|
|
|
Simon Singh |
|
fa3d469
|
Jack Good, a veteran of Bletchley, commented: "Fortunately the authorities did not know that Turing was a homosexual. Otherwise we might have lost the war."
|
|
|
Simon Singh |
|
07f0c8a
|
Alan Turing was another cryptanalyst who did not live long enough to receive any public recognition. Instead of being acclaimed a hero, he was persecuted for his homosexuality. In 1952, while reporting a burglary to the police, he naively revealed that he was having a homosexual relationship. The police felt they had no option but to arrest and charge him with "Gross Indecency contrary to Section 11 of the Criminal Law Amendment Act 1885." ..
|
|
|
Simon Singh |
|
275de19
|
Jestlize nekdy plati, ze nutnost je matkou invence, pak je rovnez mozne, ze ohrozeni je matkou kryptoanalyzy.
|
|
|
Simon Singh |
|
1c67f72
|
Po prvni svetove valce se Spojenci nebali nikoho.
|
|
|
Simon Singh |
|
984d9cc
|
Polsky uspech v prolomeni Enigmy byl dan tremi faktory: strachem, matematikou a spionazi.
|
|
|
Simon Singh |
|
dc7f244
|
Kolem roku 1790, kdyz byla ratifikovana Listina svobod, mohl soukrome mluvit kdokoliv s kymkoliv - s jistotou, jakou uz dnes nema nikdo - proste tak, ze poposel po ceste kousek od ostatnich a podival se, jestli se nekdo neskryva v kerich.
|
|
|
Simon Singh |
|
3bcd35a
|
The correct use of a strong cipher is a clear boon to sender and receiver, but the misuse of a weak cipher can generate a very false sense of security.
|
|
|
Simon Singh |