Читать книгу Introduction to Blockchain Technology - Tiana Laurence - Страница 19

The Enigma device was revolutionary. It changed each letter in a complex manner. One letter would swap for another letter multiple times via mechanical rotors. The number of rotors added to the difficulty of the encryption. Only someone with a daily encryption sheet that had the key would know how to unwrap the letters.

Enigma was the strongest encryption method at the time. Eventually, allied forces uncovered how the Germans were encrypting their messages. Joan Clarke and Alan Turing were important code breakers. They would decode messages every day, but this was tremendously difficult.

The Germans kept adding new rotors that would swap the letters more times. Each new rotor added to the mathematical difficulty and eventually made it nearly impossible for Joan Clarke and Alan Turing to solve the encryption key for that day.

The need to solve the German’s encryption key led to the development of a mechanical computer called The Bombe. With help from Polish code breakers, Alan Turing developed it at a British government security facility called Bletchley Park. The Bombe could quickly solve the encryption key that was being used by the Germans that day. The Enigma, like all other encryption before, was using what is known as symmetric key encryption. The same key was used to encode a message and decode it.