Cryptography
in World War II
Spring 2006
Meetings
February 15, 22
Wednesdays, 1:30-3:30
Meadows Presbyterian Church
March 1, 8
Lectures
Class 1: Introduction, Cryptography before World War II [PDF]Introduction to Cryptology
Terminology
Principles
Brief history of 4000 years of Cryptology
Cryptology before World War II
Simple Substitution
Breaking Ciphers
Vigenere Cipher
Class 2: The Lorenz Cipher and the Postman's Computer [PDF]
Vernam and Morehouse
Lorenz Cipher Machine
Breaking Fish
Colossus
Class 3: Enigmatic Enigma [PDF]
Rotating Substitutions
Multiple Substitutions
Eniga Machine
Batons Attack
Rejewski's Attack
Alan Turing
Class 4: Modern Cryptography [PDF]
Allied Ciphers and German Code-Breaking Efforts
Modern Symmetric Ciphers
Public-Key Cryptography
Secure Sockets (Web Page Security)
Links
The Code BookThe Code Book: The Science of Secrecy from Ancient Egypt to Quantum Cryptography, by Simon SinghCryptography: Principles and Applications
Highly recommended (mostly) non-technical book on the history of cryptography.
My cryptography course at UVa. Lecture 4 and Lecture 5 provide some more details on Enigma and how it was broken.Bletchley Park
Website for the Bletchley Park museum, includes a virtual tour. (You can also see my Bletchley Park pictures.)WWII Codes and Ciphers
Tony Sale's site on WWII cryptography.Alan Turing
Web page on Alan Turing developed by Andrew Hodges.