Wednesday, October 26, 2011

Pearl Harbor Pandemonium

In many books and articles, it has been speculated that messages containing information about the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor had been decoded but not shared with the naval officers. If this were the case, many American lives could have been saved had the information been properly delivered. However, it is thought that the president wanted to enter the war and assumed this was the only way the American people would accept that, so he withheld the information from the public. Cryptology played a major role in finding out about the attacks, but according to written history, the code was so difficult it took a long time to crack and by the time they figured out the intercepted message, the attack had already taken place. If the code had been broken sooner, or if the information wasn't withheld, there could've been a very different outcome. What do you think really happened?

Monday, October 24, 2011

Ancient Egypt

Growing up, I learned a lot about ancient Egypt and the many wonders it held, such as pyramids, pharaoh's tombs, and hieroglyphs. I watched movies, learned how to draw symbols, and read both fiction and non-fiction on the subject. Now, as a college student, I am focusing on a unique perspective of the topic. For my final project, I will research the cryptology behind the hieroglyphs, which is something I haven't learned in the past. I am excited to gain new insight and perspective of the well-known ancient Egyptians.

Saturday, October 22, 2011

David Stuart- Mayanist

At age 18, David Stuart was the youngest person to ever receive the MacArthur Award, which is more popularly known as the "genius award". Though Stuart was a very smart man, he had an advantage over other people working in the same field as him because he was exposed to the subject at a very young age. His father was the son of a Mayanist scholar and went on excursions with him from the time he was 8 years old. He would study the glyphs, draw them, and help decipher their meanings. He went on a trip with Linda Schele at age 12 and afterward wrote a scholarly article about his findings, which led to his receiving the MacArthur in 1984. Later, he earned his Ph.D in Anthropology at Vanderbilt University in 1995 and later taught at Harvard University. He has published many papers and books since then and still does work with the glyphs today. He is an incredibly smart man who made huge contributions to our knowledge of Mayan hieroglyphs.

The Mayan Language

The Mayan Language was once a mystery that seemed unable to be broken. However, with much tedious work, linguists and researchers have been able to crack the code and uncover a language that was thought to be lost. I was fascinated by the information I learned in the film we watched last week, and my interest was further fueled in class Friday when we wrote our own names in Mayan. Although we merely learned a small fraction of the Mayan language, it was cool to put words together using their glyphs and symbols. It allowed me to truly appreciate the time and effort they put into carving their glyphs, too. I was having trouble drawing a short phrase on a piece of paper... I can't even imagine having to carve much more complicated texts into cavern walls! Mayan isn't just a language- it's a work of art.



Thursday, October 13, 2011

Using the Enigma Machine!

In class, we used paper machines to encode and decode messages in a way that emulated how Enigma machines worked. This was very complicated for most of the students, as the Enigma machine uses a complex system to encrypt messages. However, this activity enabled us to understand the fundamentals of the machine. To simplify the encoding process though, I found a website that quickly and easily allows anyone to encrypt any message via the Enigma machine. Try it out for yourself!


http://www.bletchleycovers.com/Virtual_enigma/Enigma_Machine_Applet.htm

A New Era

According to an article I read in Popular Science, a new code has been created that could possibly throw off hackers for good! Siemens, Austrian Research Centers and Graz University of Technology combined efforts to build the first quantum cryptology chip for commercial use. This chip uses a random sequence of numbers from light particles, as opposed to the current method of encrypting using mathematical algorithms which can be cracked with enough time and effort. The quantum cryptographic light lock uses photons to create a completely random code through an optical array of light, which is virtually impossible to break. It seems as if our electronic data can now be secure for good!

Thursday, October 6, 2011

An Ongoing Battle

The most current war between cryptographers and cryptanalysts, in my opinion, has to do with the internet. Computer scientists are constantly creating codes to protect websites and online customer's personal information. At the same time, thieves and crooks are breaking down this software and accessing top secret information which allows them to steal people's identities. It is an ongoing battle, and hopefully the brilliant minds of the good guys will prevail. Until then, be very careful of what you put online. You never know who's breaking through internet security and accessing "protected" information!

Tuesday, October 4, 2011

A Brilliant Life Lost

In the last chapter of The Code Book by Simon Singh, a brilliant mind was introduced to the world of cryptology. Alan Turing was the cryptanalyst who, during World War II, identified the Enigma's greatest weakness and ruthlessly exploited it. It is because of his genius and work ethic that the Allies were able to win the war. Without him, they would have been set back months, maybe even years, and most likely would have lost the war.


Turing was born in Britain in 1912. His father was part of the Indian civil service, so when Turing was just over 1 year old his parents returned to India and left him in the care of nannies and friends until he was old enough to attend boarding school. In school he was shy and awkward and didn't have many friends, but he excelled in the subject of science.


His one true friend, Christopher Morcom, also had an interest in science. They motivated each other and fueled their intellectual curiosity. Turing had deeper feelings than just friendship for his friend, but Morcom was unaware of this fact. In fact, Turing never got the chance to tell him because Morcom died suddenly of tuberculosis in 1930.


Turing was devastated at the loss of his friend and lover, but his friend's smarts and determination inspired Turing to work even harder to succeed in science and live up to Morcom's ingenuity. The next year, Turing attended King's College at Cambridge and acquired an interest in mathematics. He is most well known for his mathematical paper titled "On Computable Numbers."


All of this hard work did not go unnoticed, and before Turing graduated he was invited to become a cryptanalyst at Bletchley, the headquarters for deciphering enemy encoded messages. There, Turing was extremely successful. He found ways to break messages sent via Enigma Machines by the Germans, which was previously believed to be impossible. He also created machines called bombes that analyzed and cracked codes sent through the Enigma. Though it was a team effort, Turing stood out at Bletchley as the most influential and brilliant person on the job.


Unfortunately, Turing's and everyone else at Bletchley's work had to remain anonymous, even after the wars end. They weren't given credit until much later, but by that point, Turing had sadly already died. In 1952, Turing was reporting a burglary and accidentally revealed to police that he was in a homosexual relationship. He was arrested and fined, and the incident appeared in newspapers. Turing was so humiliated, he took his own life by eating an apple he soaked in cyanide solution.


It is sad to think that such a brilliant and influential mind never got to experience the glory and honor he deserved for his noble work. Turing deserves recognition for his historical work, and it is up to us to recognize and remember his achievements that offered so much to this world.