Secret Services & Masterpiece

This is the masterpiece that I choose to represent my blog...Kryptos. It is a sculpure realized by Jim Sanborn on four large copper plates with other elements made of red and green granite, white quartz, and petrified wood, sitting in the grounds of the CIA headquarters in Virginia. It contains a message, which hasn't been decoded yet, even if, after 20 years of study, the solution is starting to materialize, thanks also to few hints given by the author. It is divided in 4 sections, three of the four coded sections of the sculpture had been cracked (solutions) by a CIA analyst, who was estimated to have spent 400 lunch-hours pondering it with a pencil and paper.

Articles about this sculpure and the halo of mistery surrounding it!
http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2010/11/kryptos-clue/
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/northamerica/usa/8149792/CIAs-Kryptos-sculpture-close-to-being-solved.html

Technology & The Enigma Machine

The Enigma machine is actually one of the best thing I ever seen in my life... I know now is just an antique, but at the time it was one of the most incredible devices ever builted for its complexity, the extreme safeness of its encrypted messages and its handiness.

Exploded structure of a rotor

Let's dig a little bit deeper into this machine: the principal compontents of the first machine presented by Arthur Scherbious consisted of  a keyboard, a plugboard, 3/4 rotors, a reflector and a lamp display pannel.
The machine workedpretty much in the following way: the operator press a character in the typewriter starting an electric impulse that is going to follow a certain pattern which is swapped when it passes into the plugbloard, then it goes trough the rotors, come back thanks to the reflector and it light a lamp wich corresponds to a certain letter (result). Explained in that way it may looks that it is an easy code to break, but there is a lot more going on in that machine... in fact the rotors are not fixed in that position, but they change at each pression like the odometer does, meaning that the first rotors moves each   time, meanwhile the second one makes a step only after the first one has done an entire cycle, and the third one does the same with respect to the second one, moreover the plugboard disposition could have been changed and the first position of the rotors choosed freely. To sum up with all those basilar elements the machine already disposed of a number of possible combinations way big to be discovered in useful time.

Schematic representation of the classic enigma operation

And that it was just the classical machine, if we also consider the additional complexity given by the appendix devoloped later in time (which you can find in the previous post Secret Services & Patents: The Enigma Machine)  the number of possible combinations increases exponentially..

Here you can find other information about what was new in each evolution of the machine:

http://www.cryptomuseum.com/crypto/enigma/

And in this one a programme that simulates the operation

http://enigmaco.de/enigma/enigma_it.html

And now a little bit of humor...

The argument of this post is related to the one contained in Secret Services & Patents: The Enigma Machine

Sources:
[The Code Book, Simon Sing];
http://ciphermachines.com/enigma;
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enigma_machine;
http://www.bletchleypark.org.uk/content/machines.rhtm;
http://www.codesandciphers.org.uk/enigma/;

Secret Services & Patents: The Enigma Machine

The patent I chose to represent my blog is the one about the Enigma Machine, because in the field of Cryptography is the first form of mechanization of this long process of encrypting messages, for its internal complexity, involving both mechanical and electronic circuits, that makes it a real artwork. The images below are taken from the first Enigma-related Patent, the one presented by Arthur Scherbius the 23 February 1918 and released the 8 July 1925.

 

 Later in time other patents were filed, most of them proposing implementations to the original machine: for example the possibility to use tubes fulfilled with water instead of electric wires, or to change the letter circuit with a multi-switches pannel (number of possible swaps incresing in time from 6 to 10), to remove rotors and  trade their places (UKW), to add a ring that make the rotor, on which it is applied, to do an additional movement after a key-press....

There are also two evolutions of the machine: the Enigma A and the Zahlwerk Enigma (or Enigma G), respectively filed on March, 26th, 1924 and on November, 9th, 1928. There were more developpements of the machine depending on the branch of the German army in which it was used.





Following: a family tree of the Enigma evolution created by Paul Reuvers & Frode Weierud (second link between sources for further informations) and here on the right the legend to better understand how it has been organized by the autors.
Enjoy...

Continues....

Sources:
http://www.cryptomuseum.com/crypto/enigma/patents/
http://www.cryptomuseum.com/crypto/enigma/tree.htm

Secret Services & Postage Stamp

The challenge this time is: choose a stamp that talks about the blog theme... and what's better than The British bombe?
It was a wonder of mechanical and electrical engineering. It's function was to figure out the rotors settings for each day's keys, and it was capable to perform that operation in at most 12 hours. From that point, all messages could be read in real time. In all, 210 British bombes were built during the war and all were destroyed at the end of the war, but few of their american evolution, used for analysing all combinations generated by 4 rotor Naval Enigma, in all 121, are still intact and they are still here, remebering us of what a great step toward artificial intelligence it has been done during that period thanks to these machines.

 

The argument of this post is related to the ones contained in Secret Services & Patents: The Enigma Machine, Secret Services & The Enigma Machine, Secret Services & Cracking Enigma: The Bombe, Secret Services & Bombe 2.0

Secret Services & Radio

Then at the fall of Paris, a radio transmitting station was set up on the cliff, antennas aimed at the Continent, themselves heavily guarded and their landlines back mysteriously over the downs to the house patrolled night and day by dogs specially betrayed, belted, starved into reflex leaps to kill, at any human approach.


With funding available for all manner of radars, magic 

torpedoes, aircraft and missiles, where was Pointsman in the scheme of things?

"Tides, radio interference, damned little else. There is no way for changes out there to produce changes here."

On the other side of the arch is a Russian jeep with a couple officers, one talking earnestly into the mike of his radio set, and the air between quickens with spoken Russian at the speed of light weaving a net to catch Slothrop.


At first he helped out in the propulsion group. No one was specializing yet. That came later, when the bureaus and paranoias moved in, and the organization charts became plan-views of prison cells. Kurt Mondaugen, whose field was radio electronics, could come up with solutions to cooling problems.


The Russians even had a guard posted on board for a while, till the Anubian ladies vamped them off long enough to single up all lines—and so the last long reprise of Polish homeland was on, across these water-meadows of the north, radio messages following them in clear one day and code the next, an early and shapeless situation, dithering between executioner's silence and the Big Time.

Russian transmissions come crackling out of ship's radio, and the static blows like sheets of rain.


The idea was always to carry along a fixed quantity, A. Sometimes you'd use a Wìen bridge, tuned to a certain frequency A{, whistling, heavy with omen, inside the electric corridors while outside, according to the tradition in these matters, somewhere a quantity B would be gathering, building, as the Rocket gathered speed. So, up till assigned Brennschluss velocity, "v ," electric shocked as any rat into following this very narrow mazeway of clear space—yes, radio signals from the ground would enter the Rocket body, and by reflex—literally by electric signal traveling a reflex arc—the control surfaces twitch, to steer you back on course the instant you'd begin to wander off.


But the blacks don't know what else Närrisch knew:
(a) there was a radio link from the ground to the S-Gerät but not the other way round,
(b) there was an interference problem between a servo-actuator and a special oxygen line running aft to the device from the main tank,
(c) Weissmann not only coordinated the S-Gerät project at Nordhausen, but also commanded the battery that fired Rocket 00000.
Total espionage. Bit by bit this mosaic is growing. Tchitcherine, bureauless, carries it around in his brain. Every chip and scrap belongs. More precious than Ravenna, something goes erecting against this starch-colored sky. . . .
Radio link + oxygen = afterburner of some kind.


The tail-section group has been on the radio all morning, trying to get a position fix, if the skies will only clear. So the assembly of the 00001 is occurring also in a geographical way.

[Gravity's Rainbow, Thomas Pynchon]


Werner had been only fourteen years old then, but he was now eighteen, he worked at the Air Ministry, he hated the Nazis even more, and he had a powerful radio transmitter and a code book. He was resourceful and courageous, taking dreadful risks and gathering priceless information. And Volodya was his contact.


On his desk was a decrypt from the radio section, the German words pencilled letter by letter under the code groups. The message was from Werner.


Anticipating the outbreak of war, Volodya had long ago equipped his Berlin spies with clandestine radios and code books. Now it was more vital than ever that the handful of brave anti-Nazis should continue to pass information to the Soviets. Before leaving he had destroyed all records of their names and addresses, which now existed only in his head.


At home, Chuck had not said much about the navy, no doubt because their parents were still angry with him for not going to Harvard. But alone with Woody he opened up a bit. ‘Hawaii is great, but I’m really disappointed to have a shore job,’ he said. ‘I joined the navy to go to sea.’
‘What are you doing, exactly?’
‘I’m part of the Signal Intelligence Unit. We listen to radio messages, mainly from the Imperial Japanese Navy.’
‘Aren’t they in code?’
‘Yes, but you can learn a lot even without breaking the codes. It’s called traffic analysis. A sudden increase in the number of messages indicates that some action is imminent. And you learn to recognize patterns in the traffic. An amphibious landing has a distinctive configuration of signals, for example.’


We can also figure out where the signal originated, by triangulation. Given locations and the call signs, we can build up a pretty good picture of where most of the ships of the Japanese navy are, even if we can’t read the messages.’
‘So we know where they are, and what direction they’re taking, but not what their orders are,’ said Gus.
‘Frequently, yes.’
‘But if they wanted to hide from us, all they would have to do is impose radio silence.’
‘True,’ said Vandermeier. ‘If they go quiet, this whole operation becomes useless, and we are well and truly fucked up the ass.’
[...]
Gus frowned. ‘Radio silence. Has that ever happened before?’
‘Yes. Aircraft carriers go quiet when they return to home waters. So we assume that’s the explanation this time.’


Chuck was assigned to the radio room, a sensible posting that made use of his experience in
handling signals.

[Winter of the World, Ken Follet]

As it appears from the quotes extracted from the books radio had a great importance during World War II under multiple aspects, like checking enemies position (triangulation and radar) and actions (traffic analysis and signal configurations), controling the coasts, comunicating with other meber of the army or with a Soviet spy in Berlin and to control a missile and keep it on the route. There where though few problems about interferences and the fact that it can be easily tracked down.

If you wanna know more about history and functioning of Marconi's creature  check the links below:
http://s194214.blogspot.it/2013/05/la-radio.html (italian version by Alessia Rosace, 'Tecnologia e Comunicazione' blog)
http://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radio (english version - Wikipedia page on the radio as a technology feature)



About triangulation...in the link below you can find a video about triangulation method and its aplications in time:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GYBbVNpMlUU


The image presents the general idea if this tracking technique










In the links below you can find more info regarding the Traffic Analysis:
http://www.nsa.gov/public_info/_files/tech_journals/intro_traffic_analysis.pdf (NSA introduction document)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Traffic_analysis (Wikipedia presentation of its applications in the military field during WWI and WWII)

Woman radio Operator during war times

Maps & Secret Services

Our professor Vittorio Marchis  suggested to find a carthography which was coherent with our blog theme and so I've founded not one but three maps, two of which are complementary, that in my opinion are a resumè of what my blog represents:

The first map describe the Organization of the buildings in Bletchley Park in different operating areas, meanwhile the second one depict the pattern followed by not yet analyzed messages

In the link below you can find a google map which illustrates the different positions assumed, in the course of time, by the SIS' Headquartes, the neuralgic centre of all inteligence operations. Londonhttps://maps.google.it/maps/ms?msid=210910011879806218578.0004dc6e3a581c0ae61ba&msa=0

64 Victoria Street - 1909

Ashley Mansions - 1909 'till 1911

Whitehall Court - 1911 'tll 1919

Melbury Road - 1919 'till 1926

Broadway Building - 1926 'till 1964

Century House - 1964 'till 1994

Vauxhall Cross (HQ) - 1994 'till present day

Curiosity: SIS HQ features in several Bond films, like GoldenEye, The World is Not Enough, Die Another Day and Skyfall.  The production company, Eon Productions, filmed several sequences outside Vauxhall Cross in cooperation with SIS.  The most impressive involved an explosion which causes a large hole in the side of the building and a speed boat launching into the Thames, this was actually filmed using a 50 foot high model of Vauxhall Cross constructed at Pinewood Studios.

The argument of this post is related to the ones contained in The Art in the Agency and in SIS, aka MI6...A little bit of History.

Source:

https://www.sis.gov.uk/our-history/buildings.html

Cifranti (Ciphers) ... from "La piazza Universale di tutte le professioni del mondo"

When professor V. Marchis told us about "La piazza universale di tutte le professioni del mondo" by Tommaso Garzoni,last week, and suggested a research inside of its list of occupations duringof the rinascimental period  to see if there were ancestors of our blog carachters, I was actually quite skeptical about the results of my search, but never say never in life!! I found a match in the very first page of the list even if it took quite a while to understand the font and words but here I am, so... enjoy these extract..

The paragraph regarding Ciphers starts from "Scriurono.." and it talks about coded messages, hidden messages under wax layer, or written on some messenger's head (similar techniques were already discussed in the post  entitled Coded Messages), or with particular inks that would have become visible after executing of a certain procedure...

Coded Messages

It always have been clear to any king, emperor or government that keeping important messages and information from falling into hostile hands, is essential for the nation,empire or reign sake in both peace and war periods. That's why each one of them has created cryptography departement since ancient times.

Following I present two tecniques for coding messages mentioned in Pynchon's book. Actually these two example refer more to Steganography rather then Criptography, which is a less efficient way to keeping a message secret, because the message is just hidden...once it's discovered it can be easily read by anyone. A solution to this problem could be combining the two techniques, creating multiple issue to deal with in forcing the message as in the Kryptosam example (last quote).

Code messages in a dozen Slavic tongues were being tattooed on bare upper lips over which the
operatives then grew mustaches, to be shaved off only by authorized crypto officers and
skin then grafted over the messages by the Firm's plastic surgeons .. . their lips were
palimpsests of secret flesh, scarred and unnaturally white, by which they all knew each
other.

Teddy Bloat's [...] packing inside his stylish kangaroohide musette bag and threaded
around the odd necessities— midget spy-camera, jar of mustache wax



"Kryptosam" is a proprietary form of stabilized tyrosine, developed by IG Farben as
part of a research contract with OKW. An activating agent is included which, in the
presence of some component of the seminal fluid to date [1934] unidentified, promotes
conversion of the tyrosine into melanin, or skin pigment. In the absence of seminal fluid,
the "Kryptosam" remains invisible. No other known reagent, among those available to
operatives in the field, will alter "Kryp-tosam" to visible melanin. It is suggested, in
cryptographic applications, that a proper stimulus be included with the message which
will reliably produce tumescence and ejaculation. A thorough knowledge of the
addressee's psychosexual profile would seem of invaluable aid.
—prof. dr. laszlo jamf, "Kryptosam" (advertising brochure), Agfa, Berlin, 1934

Enough sperm saved, though, to rub over the blank scrap  enclosed with the picture. Slowly then, a revelation through the nacreous film of his seed,  in Negro-brown, comes his message: put in a simple Nihilist transposition whose keywords he can almost guess.

[Gravity's Rainbow, Thomas Pynchon]

The Nihilist Transposition is a real cripthography sample, where letters are turned into other using a row column transposition, following the pattern dictated by a Polybius square built on the base of a wordkey. Initially created by Russian spies it has been adopted also by the heads of the KGB

If you want to get into the Nihilist Transposition to know more or even learn how to use it for sending your secret messages go on and check these link below:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nihilist_cipher
http://www.cryptogram.org/cdb/aca.info/aca.and.you/chap08.html#NIHITR

Further explanations about the difference between Cryptography and Steganography are given in the book  The Code Book, by Simon Singh, a book that I've already mentioned in the post Secrecy...Pro & Con