In cryptography, a cipher is an algorithm for performing encryption or decryption—a series of well-defined steps that can be followed as a procedure. An alternative, less common term is encipherment. To encipher or encode is to convert information into cipher or code. In common parlance, "cipher" is synonymous with "code", as they are both a set of steps that encrypt a message; however, the concepts are distinct in cryptography, especially classical cryptography.
The Enigma machine is a cipher device developed and used in the early- to mid-20th century to protect commercial, diplomatic, and military communication. It was employed extensively by Nazi Germany during World War II, in all branches of the German military. The Enigma machine was considered so secure that it was used to encipher the most top-secret messages.
In cryptography, a rotor machine is an electro-mechanical stream cipher device used for encrypting and decrypting messages. Rotor machines were the cryptographic state-of-the-art for much of the 20th century; they were in widespread use in the 1920s–1970s. The most famous example is the German Enigma machine, the output of which was deciphered by the Allies during World War II, producing intelligence code-named Ultra.
Fish was the UK's GC&CS Bletchley Park codename for any of several German teleprinter stream ciphers used during World War II. Enciphered teleprinter traffic was used between German High Command and Army Group commanders in the field, so its intelligence value (Ultra) was of the highest strategic value to the Allies. This traffic normally passed over landlines, but as German forces extended their geographic reach beyond western Europe, they had to resort to wireless transmission.
Boris Caesar Wilhelm Hagelin was a Swedish businessman and inventor of encryption machines.
In cryptography, the M-209, designated CSP-1500 by the United States Navy is a portable, mechanical cipher machine used by the US military primarily in World War II, though it remained in active use through the Korean War. The M-209 was designed by Swedish cryptographer Boris Hagelin in response to a request for such a portable cipher machine, and was an improvement of an earlier machine, the C-36.
The Jefferson disk, also called the Bazeries cylinder or wheel cypher, was a cipher system commonly attributed to Thomas Jefferson that uses a set of wheels or disks, each with letters of the alphabet arranged around their edge in an order, which is different for each disk and is usually ordered randomly.
The TSEC/KL-7, also known as Adonis was an off-line non-reciprocal rotor encryption machine. The KL-7 had rotors to encrypt the text, most of which moved in a complex pattern, controlled by notched rings. The non-moving rotor was fourth from the left of the stack. The KL-7 also encrypted the message indicator.
In the history of cryptography, the Kryha machine was a device for encryption and decryption, appearing in the early 1920s and used until the 1950s. The machine was the invention of Alexander von Kryha. During the Second World War, Kryha worked as an officer for the German Wehrmacht. There were several versions; the standard Kryha machine weighed around five kilograms, and was totally mechanical. A scaled down pocket version was introduced later on, termed the "Lilliput" model. There was also a more bulky electrical version.
Arvid Gerhard Damm was a Swedish engineer and inventor. He designed a number of cipher machines, and was one of the early inventors of the wired rotor principle for machine encipherment. The company, AB Cryptograph, was an early predecessor of Crypto AG.
The HC-9 was a mechanical cipher device manufactured by the Swedish company AB Transvertex. It was designed in the early 1950s for the Swedish Armed Forces and in use from 1963 to 1995 as Krypteringsapparat 301. This machine was used for low-level communications such as platoon, company, up to battalion levels and in regimental and brigade staffs.The machine dimensions are 18 x 15 x 7 cm.
The (Hagelin) CD-57 was a portable, mechanical cipher machine manufactured by Crypto AG, first produced in 1957. It was derived from the earlier CD-55, and was designed to be compatible with the larger C-52 machines. Compact, the CD-57 measured merely 5 1/8in × 3 1/8in × 1 1/2in and weighed 1.5 pounds. The CD-57 used six wheels.
The (Hagelin) C-52 and CX-52 were cipher machines manufactured by Crypto AG starting 1951/1952. These pin-and-lug type cipher machines were advanced successors of the C-38/M-209. The machine measures 8+1⁄2 by 5+3⁄8 by 4+3⁄8 inches. The device is mechanical, but when combined with an electric keyboard attachment, the B-52, the resultant system is termed the BC-52. The B-52 is larger, measuring 12+1⁄2 by 8+1⁄2 by 6+3⁄8 inches.
In cryptography, a pinwheel was a device for producing a short pseudorandom sequence of bits, as a component in a cipher machine. A pinwheel consisted of a rotating wheel with a certain number of positions on its periphery. Each position had a "pin", "cam" or "lug" which could be either "set" or "unset". As the wheel rotated, each of these pins would in turn affect other parts of the machine, producing a series of "on" or "off" pulses which would repeat after one full rotation of the wheel. If the machine contained more than one wheel, usually their periods would be relatively prime to maximize the combined period. Pinwheels might be turned through a purely mechanical action or electromechanically.
The Combined Cipher Machine (CCM) was a common cipher machine system for securing Allied communications during World War II and, for a few years after, by NATO. The British Typex machine and the US ECM Mark II were both modified so that they were interoperable.
Marian Adam Rejewski was a Polish mathematician and cryptologist who in late 1932 reconstructed the sight-unseen German military Enigma cipher machine, aided by limited documents obtained by French military intelligence.
Rasterschlüssel 44 was a manual cipher system, used by the German Wehrmacht during the Second World War. The cipher was designed by the astronomer and sometime cryptographer Walter Fricke while working as a conscript in Section IIb, of Group 2 of OKW/Chi and introduced in March 1944 and the Allied forces codebreakers had considerable difficulties in breaking it. Cryptanalysis, if successful, generally required a 40 letter crib and some two weeks, making the tactical information outdated before it could be exploited. The combination of strength and ease of use made RS 44 an ideal hand cipher.
Ostwin Fritz Menzer was a German cryptologist, who before and during World War II, worked in the In 7/VI, the Wehrmacht signals intelligence agency, later working in that was the cipher bureau of the supreme command of the Nazi party, and later in Abwehr, the military intelligence service of the Wehrmacht. He was involved in the development and production of cryptographic devices and procedures, as well as the security control of their own methods.
The Schlüsselgerät 41, also known as the SG-41 or Hitler mill, was a rotor cipher machine, first produced in 1941 in Nazi Germany, that was designed as a potential successor for the Enigma machine. It saw limited use by the Abwehr towards the end of World War II.
AB Cryptograph was a limited Swedish company developing and selling crypto machines, founded on 21 July 1916 and liquidated in 1930. It was probably the first company in the world to focus entirely on the cryptographic market.
