1 00:00:04,120 --> 00:00:07,160 Speaker 1: Get in touch with technology with tech Stuff from how 2 00:00:07,200 --> 00:00:13,720 Speaker 1: stuff Works dot Com. Hey there, and welcome to tech Stuff. 3 00:00:13,760 --> 00:00:16,640 Speaker 1: I'm your host, Jonathan Strickland. I'm an executive producer with 4 00:00:16,680 --> 00:00:19,760 Speaker 1: How Stuff Works in love all things tech, and today 5 00:00:20,360 --> 00:00:24,599 Speaker 1: is a Friday. We gotta get down on Friday. As 6 00:00:24,640 --> 00:00:26,720 Speaker 1: Rebecca Black would say. But this is not an episode 7 00:00:26,720 --> 00:00:30,920 Speaker 1: about Rebecca Black, who I would argue is an Enigma. Instead, 8 00:00:31,440 --> 00:00:35,559 Speaker 1: this is an episode about the Enigma, the Enigma coding machine, 9 00:00:36,120 --> 00:00:39,760 Speaker 1: and we originally published this classic episode on October nineteenth, 10 00:00:39,880 --> 00:00:42,280 Speaker 1: two thousand eleven. Chris Poulette and I talked about the 11 00:00:42,400 --> 00:00:45,720 Speaker 1: Enigma machine, what it was, and what it took to 12 00:00:45,920 --> 00:00:48,400 Speaker 1: break the code. I hope you enjoy, and I'll talk 13 00:00:48,400 --> 00:00:51,320 Speaker 1: to you again in just a moment. Today we're gonna 14 00:00:51,320 --> 00:00:55,040 Speaker 1: talk about um, something that actually came to mind when 15 00:00:55,360 --> 00:00:59,760 Speaker 1: during the process of recording our episode on quantum computers 16 00:01:00,000 --> 00:01:02,480 Speaker 1: sort of led to a discussion of quantum cryptography and 17 00:01:02,480 --> 00:01:06,319 Speaker 1: cryptography is something that actually fascinates probably just about all 18 00:01:06,360 --> 00:01:09,280 Speaker 1: of how stuff works dot Com considering um, and it 19 00:01:09,360 --> 00:01:13,720 Speaker 1: also comes to play it touches on another podcast topic 20 00:01:13,760 --> 00:01:18,360 Speaker 1: that we tackled months and months ago. Mr Turing Oh Yes, 21 00:01:18,440 --> 00:01:20,560 Speaker 1: Alan Touring is gonna come up in this very important 22 00:01:20,560 --> 00:01:23,560 Speaker 1: in this discussion as well. We're talking about the specifically 23 00:01:23,600 --> 00:01:27,759 Speaker 1: the Enigma machine, which was a cipher machine used by 24 00:01:27,840 --> 00:01:33,000 Speaker 1: Germany during World War Two. Yeah. The funny thing is, UM, 25 00:01:33,040 --> 00:01:37,160 Speaker 1: if you've watched any history or read any history about 26 00:01:37,440 --> 00:01:41,920 Speaker 1: World War two and uh specifically the war between Germany 27 00:01:41,959 --> 00:01:45,080 Speaker 1: and the Allies, UM, you have a sense of what 28 00:01:45,120 --> 00:01:48,600 Speaker 1: this machine meant to the German war effort. But the 29 00:01:48,600 --> 00:01:51,520 Speaker 1: thing is, what I don't think comes across in a 30 00:01:51,560 --> 00:01:55,960 Speaker 1: lot of those um discussions is that there's no one 31 00:01:56,520 --> 00:02:00,400 Speaker 1: Enigma machine, and it certainly wasn't unknown to the world 32 00:02:00,400 --> 00:02:04,240 Speaker 1: before that because the the Enigma goes back years before 33 00:02:04,280 --> 00:02:05,920 Speaker 1: the start of World War Two. It was actually a 34 00:02:05,920 --> 00:02:10,639 Speaker 1: commercial machine used to encrypt messages. And in fact, because 35 00:02:10,639 --> 00:02:13,240 Speaker 1: it was a commercial machine, it gave some people a 36 00:02:13,320 --> 00:02:16,280 Speaker 1: leg up on on figuring out how to crack the 37 00:02:16,320 --> 00:02:20,800 Speaker 1: code because it was generally considered to be a practically 38 00:02:20,960 --> 00:02:25,079 Speaker 1: uncrackable code if you were to follow the most careful 39 00:02:25,960 --> 00:02:29,240 Speaker 1: security procedures possible. And we'll get into why that is. 40 00:02:29,360 --> 00:02:31,680 Speaker 1: But before, I think, before we jump into what the 41 00:02:31,720 --> 00:02:34,440 Speaker 1: machine did and what how it did it, we need 42 00:02:34,480 --> 00:02:38,000 Speaker 1: to talk a little bit just about cipher's in general. Please. Alright, 43 00:02:38,080 --> 00:02:40,640 Speaker 1: So a cipher really, and in this case, we're talking 44 00:02:40,639 --> 00:02:44,480 Speaker 1: about creating a coded message, and uh, there are different 45 00:02:44,480 --> 00:02:46,240 Speaker 1: ways of doing this, lots of different ways. You can 46 00:02:46,280 --> 00:02:49,640 Speaker 1: create a new alphabet, you can try and hide things 47 00:02:49,639 --> 00:02:53,760 Speaker 1: and images. That's called agraphy right where. What you can 48 00:02:53,760 --> 00:02:57,200 Speaker 1: also do it is hide messages within a file, like 49 00:02:57,200 --> 00:03:00,000 Speaker 1: like the code for a file. So I could send 50 00:03:00,480 --> 00:03:04,919 Speaker 1: a seemingly harmless file to Chris, but if you were 51 00:03:04,919 --> 00:03:07,359 Speaker 1: to actually look into the code of that file, hidden there, 52 00:03:07,360 --> 00:03:10,720 Speaker 1: not displayed in any form of executable function, might be 53 00:03:10,760 --> 00:03:13,320 Speaker 1: a message. So there are lots of different ways of 54 00:03:13,320 --> 00:03:15,799 Speaker 1: getting secret messages across, but a very common one is 55 00:03:15,880 --> 00:03:18,280 Speaker 1: using a cipher where you replace one letter of the 56 00:03:18,280 --> 00:03:22,680 Speaker 1: alphabet with another. All right, So the very basic version 57 00:03:22,680 --> 00:03:27,040 Speaker 1: of that is a mono alphabetic substitution cipher. In height, 58 00:03:27,760 --> 00:03:30,560 Speaker 1: it means you're using just the one alphabet and that 59 00:03:30,760 --> 00:03:34,360 Speaker 1: one letter is always going to represent another letter always 60 00:03:34,560 --> 00:03:36,560 Speaker 1: in that cipher. Oh yeah, my friends and I used 61 00:03:36,600 --> 00:03:39,640 Speaker 1: to do this back in grade school. Yeah, you know 62 00:03:39,680 --> 00:03:42,320 Speaker 1: we we would say, okay, so every letter, you know, 63 00:03:42,400 --> 00:03:44,440 Speaker 1: the letter A is represented by the letter D, and 64 00:03:44,480 --> 00:03:46,640 Speaker 1: it just goes down the alphabet like that. You've just 65 00:03:46,680 --> 00:03:49,840 Speaker 1: shifted the alphabet to the to the right a couple 66 00:03:49,880 --> 00:03:52,880 Speaker 1: of places, sure like that, and then you just go 67 00:03:53,040 --> 00:03:56,440 Speaker 1: from there. And so in order to to decode this, 68 00:03:57,040 --> 00:03:59,400 Speaker 1: if you're not just trying to crack it, I mean, 69 00:03:59,400 --> 00:04:01,400 Speaker 1: if you're actually coding it, like you're the person who 70 00:04:01,440 --> 00:04:04,680 Speaker 1: is supposed to receive this message, you would need to 71 00:04:04,720 --> 00:04:09,040 Speaker 1: know which letter you know, how far over did the 72 00:04:09,080 --> 00:04:12,400 Speaker 1: alphabet shift, right, So if if A is B and 73 00:04:12,520 --> 00:04:14,560 Speaker 1: bs C and C is D, then you know, all right, 74 00:04:14,560 --> 00:04:17,200 Speaker 1: well it's a. It shifted one place, and so I 75 00:04:17,320 --> 00:04:20,320 Speaker 1: know to shift all these letters back a spot so 76 00:04:20,360 --> 00:04:23,000 Speaker 1: that I can decode this. All right, that's your very 77 00:04:23,040 --> 00:04:26,560 Speaker 1: basic mono alphabetic substitution. Now those are easy to crack. 78 00:04:26,800 --> 00:04:29,720 Speaker 1: It's easy for anyone to crack, yes, all right, as 79 00:04:29,720 --> 00:04:33,520 Speaker 1: long as you know some basic u rules and and 80 00:04:33,640 --> 00:04:37,640 Speaker 1: tendencies in your native language, you can crack these. For example, 81 00:04:37,960 --> 00:04:40,560 Speaker 1: you can start looking for two letters that are like 82 00:04:40,720 --> 00:04:44,600 Speaker 1: letters that are are doubled up. You start looking at those, 83 00:04:44,600 --> 00:04:46,799 Speaker 1: and then you think, okay, which letters in the English 84 00:04:46,880 --> 00:04:51,520 Speaker 1: language are the most frequently paired together, Like two T 85 00:04:51,800 --> 00:04:55,320 Speaker 1: s would be an example. Oh, two teas happen a lot, 86 00:04:55,360 --> 00:04:58,240 Speaker 1: so that that letter there could represent a T. Let 87 00:04:58,240 --> 00:05:00,159 Speaker 1: me see if that starts to fit other things. You 88 00:05:00,160 --> 00:05:02,599 Speaker 1: look for patterns, and you find these patterns, and you 89 00:05:02,640 --> 00:05:05,560 Speaker 1: can decode things. You can make this a little more difficult, 90 00:05:05,760 --> 00:05:08,200 Speaker 1: actually a lot more difficult, depending on how sophisticated you 91 00:05:08,240 --> 00:05:13,719 Speaker 1: get using a polyalphabetic substitution. All right, so there's this 92 00:05:14,160 --> 00:05:17,280 Speaker 1: one kind of cipher called a Vignier cipher. Uh, this 93 00:05:17,360 --> 00:05:19,640 Speaker 1: is a little more complex now and a Vineer cipher. 94 00:05:19,680 --> 00:05:22,800 Speaker 1: You've got a grid. It's twenty six boxes across in 95 00:05:22,839 --> 00:05:27,200 Speaker 1: twenty six boxes tall. All right. On that top level 96 00:05:27,279 --> 00:05:30,280 Speaker 1: of the grid, you have the alphabet spelled out normally A, B, C, 97 00:05:30,400 --> 00:05:32,839 Speaker 1: D all the way to Z, and then on the 98 00:05:32,880 --> 00:05:35,920 Speaker 1: next one you shift that letter over once, so now 99 00:05:35,960 --> 00:05:39,320 Speaker 1: it's B through A. So the last the last one 100 00:05:39,400 --> 00:05:41,279 Speaker 1: is gonna be A. And then you go the next 101 00:05:41,400 --> 00:05:43,400 Speaker 1: lay up level down you shift it over against. Now 102 00:05:43,400 --> 00:05:46,200 Speaker 1: it's C through B and you do this all the 103 00:05:46,240 --> 00:05:49,280 Speaker 1: way down until you get to Z to A at 104 00:05:49,279 --> 00:05:52,360 Speaker 1: the very bottom, all right, or not zo a zero 105 00:05:52,560 --> 00:05:56,960 Speaker 1: of zo y um. I'm sitting here, I'm I'm mixing 106 00:05:57,000 --> 00:06:00,599 Speaker 1: myself up now the way Vinnier cipher's because you would 107 00:06:00,640 --> 00:06:04,799 Speaker 1: have a key phrase or keyword. Okay, so it's something 108 00:06:04,839 --> 00:06:07,320 Speaker 1: that you and the person you're writing to have both 109 00:06:07,360 --> 00:06:11,280 Speaker 1: agreed upon in advance. So let's say that, for for 110 00:06:11,960 --> 00:06:13,960 Speaker 1: Chris and I, would we sit there and we decay 111 00:06:14,040 --> 00:06:18,480 Speaker 1: text stuff is our key phrase. You would look at 112 00:06:18,480 --> 00:06:21,560 Speaker 1: your grid and you would go down that first column. 113 00:06:21,720 --> 00:06:24,760 Speaker 1: You go all the way down to the T column, 114 00:06:24,800 --> 00:06:27,480 Speaker 1: the column that starts the alphabet begins with the letter T. 115 00:06:28,839 --> 00:06:31,240 Speaker 1: And then let's say that my first word is to 116 00:06:31,520 --> 00:06:36,640 Speaker 1: Chris is going to be uh, howdy. I then look 117 00:06:36,800 --> 00:06:40,760 Speaker 1: across the top of that grid for the H on 118 00:06:40,839 --> 00:06:43,440 Speaker 1: the very top row. All right, So I've got my 119 00:06:43,520 --> 00:06:47,520 Speaker 1: finger on the t row based on the first column, 120 00:06:47,760 --> 00:06:52,160 Speaker 1: and I'm looking at the H column in the top row, 121 00:06:52,839 --> 00:06:56,400 Speaker 1: and I find the intersection of those two so where 122 00:06:56,400 --> 00:06:59,400 Speaker 1: the t row and the H column meet, and then 123 00:06:59,440 --> 00:07:04,520 Speaker 1: that let represents H. And then for oh, I go 124 00:07:04,680 --> 00:07:07,320 Speaker 1: because my key phrases tech stuff, I go to the 125 00:07:07,400 --> 00:07:10,800 Speaker 1: E column or E row on the first column. So 126 00:07:10,800 --> 00:07:13,040 Speaker 1: I look at that first column, which is again in 127 00:07:13,120 --> 00:07:15,520 Speaker 1: alphabetical order, so it's A B, C, D E. So 128 00:07:15,560 --> 00:07:17,640 Speaker 1: I go to the E row, and then I look 129 00:07:17,680 --> 00:07:21,040 Speaker 1: for the O in the top row, and I find 130 00:07:21,040 --> 00:07:24,400 Speaker 1: the intersection of those, uh, the column of O and 131 00:07:24,440 --> 00:07:27,080 Speaker 1: the row of E and that and that becomes my 132 00:07:27,200 --> 00:07:31,880 Speaker 1: Oh so Chris, because he knows that the key phrases 133 00:07:31,920 --> 00:07:34,400 Speaker 1: tech stuff, he knows which road to look at, and 134 00:07:34,440 --> 00:07:37,560 Speaker 1: then he looks at the encoded letter. He finds that 135 00:07:37,720 --> 00:07:41,000 Speaker 1: in the in within that row, looks up to see 136 00:07:41,000 --> 00:07:43,160 Speaker 1: what column it is, and that's the letter it it 137 00:07:43,360 --> 00:07:48,600 Speaker 1: decodes into. Now this might sound really complex. That's kind 138 00:07:48,600 --> 00:07:51,520 Speaker 1: of the point. Well, you don't want the enemy to 139 00:07:51,880 --> 00:07:54,920 Speaker 1: decipher your code, because then it will learn what you're 140 00:07:55,000 --> 00:07:58,400 Speaker 1: up to, and the element of surprise is lost. So 141 00:07:59,760 --> 00:08:04,960 Speaker 1: this um this method becomes less useful if you are 142 00:08:05,000 --> 00:08:09,120 Speaker 1: starting to encode longer and longer messages, because that increases 143 00:08:09,160 --> 00:08:12,640 Speaker 1: the chance that the enemy or someone who is not 144 00:08:12,760 --> 00:08:15,200 Speaker 1: meant to read the code can figure out your key 145 00:08:15,240 --> 00:08:18,320 Speaker 1: phrase or keyword. And if they figure out that keyword, 146 00:08:18,560 --> 00:08:21,280 Speaker 1: then they've unlocked everything. That's all they need. They just 147 00:08:21,360 --> 00:08:25,280 Speaker 1: need to create a vinyer cipher graph or chart and 148 00:08:25,320 --> 00:08:29,280 Speaker 1: then use that key phrase to decode what you've said. Now, 149 00:08:29,320 --> 00:08:32,960 Speaker 1: the enigment machine takes and a similar approach to the 150 00:08:33,040 --> 00:08:37,719 Speaker 1: Vignier cipher and complicates it on a massive scale and 151 00:08:37,800 --> 00:08:42,440 Speaker 1: also automates it. Yeah, because um, you know with any 152 00:08:42,480 --> 00:08:46,920 Speaker 1: of these codes that the key, uh is probably the 153 00:08:46,920 --> 00:08:52,679 Speaker 1: most important part. Um. If you intercept a coded transmission 154 00:08:52,800 --> 00:08:57,600 Speaker 1: and you have no idea how it has been enciphered, 155 00:08:58,000 --> 00:09:00,520 Speaker 1: it's going to take you much longer should try to 156 00:09:00,520 --> 00:09:05,040 Speaker 1: break that code. Um. Whereas if somebody on the other 157 00:09:05,120 --> 00:09:06,640 Speaker 1: end has the key to it, they'll be able to 158 00:09:06,720 --> 00:09:09,880 Speaker 1: decipher it in no time or a little bit more 159 00:09:09,920 --> 00:09:13,440 Speaker 1: than no time. Um. So that's that's one of the 160 00:09:13,440 --> 00:09:16,679 Speaker 1: tricky parts, is I mean you can uh you know, 161 00:09:17,320 --> 00:09:19,120 Speaker 1: during wor War two, they were there were all kinds 162 00:09:19,120 --> 00:09:22,000 Speaker 1: of different ways to send messages, including things like one 163 00:09:22,040 --> 00:09:25,400 Speaker 1: time pads, which is a a pad used of paper 164 00:09:25,520 --> 00:09:28,760 Speaker 1: used with a particular code this is the one for 165 00:09:28,880 --> 00:09:32,080 Speaker 1: this message. And uh. This would be used out in 166 00:09:32,080 --> 00:09:34,840 Speaker 1: the field by agents who couldn't carry something like a 167 00:09:34,920 --> 00:09:39,120 Speaker 1: rotor machine like the Enigma with them. Uh you know. 168 00:09:39,200 --> 00:09:41,360 Speaker 1: And the thing is if the if you lose, if 169 00:09:41,400 --> 00:09:43,720 Speaker 1: the person on the other end loses the key for 170 00:09:43,760 --> 00:09:47,360 Speaker 1: that particular pad, um, it's just gonna take forever. But 171 00:09:47,400 --> 00:09:50,400 Speaker 1: the Enigma was a way to to automate this UM. 172 00:09:50,480 --> 00:09:53,319 Speaker 1: This process, and this machine, which was first patented N 173 00:09:54,200 --> 00:09:57,200 Speaker 1: ended up being pivotal UH in World War Two, both 174 00:09:57,280 --> 00:10:01,319 Speaker 1: for the Germans and well act really the the axis 175 00:10:01,320 --> 00:10:06,000 Speaker 1: because they did have a Japanese version that they used, UM, 176 00:10:06,040 --> 00:10:08,240 Speaker 1: but also for the Allies when they were able to 177 00:10:08,320 --> 00:10:11,760 Speaker 1: figure out how the machine worked, and because it does 178 00:10:11,800 --> 00:10:15,120 Speaker 1: have its own flaws. UM. So let's let's talk about 179 00:10:15,160 --> 00:10:17,640 Speaker 1: what was in an Enigma machine and what it looked 180 00:10:17,640 --> 00:10:22,280 Speaker 1: like and and how it encoded letters UM. Each of 181 00:10:22,280 --> 00:10:25,560 Speaker 1: the machines, going back to the very first one, the 182 00:10:25,640 --> 00:10:30,480 Speaker 1: Enigma A had rotor wheels UM and a keyboard. It 183 00:10:30,520 --> 00:10:32,800 Speaker 1: looks a little uh if you've never seen one of 184 00:10:32,840 --> 00:10:35,360 Speaker 1: these machines, and they all look a little different there, 185 00:10:35,400 --> 00:10:37,960 Speaker 1: Like I said, uh, several different types of machines that 186 00:10:38,120 --> 00:10:40,640 Speaker 1: evolved over time, but all of them had a keyboard 187 00:10:40,679 --> 00:10:44,040 Speaker 1: on it, UM arranged in more of a well at 188 00:10:44,080 --> 00:10:46,079 Speaker 1: first it was an alphabetic fashion and then turned into 189 00:10:46,160 --> 00:10:50,760 Speaker 1: more of the uh German keyboard style, but so kind 190 00:10:50,760 --> 00:10:53,240 Speaker 1: of like a typewriter. Yeah. And the very first one 191 00:10:53,280 --> 00:10:55,000 Speaker 1: looked a little bit like one of the old timey 192 00:10:55,040 --> 00:10:58,199 Speaker 1: cash registers. It was so big, UM. But yeah, I 193 00:10:58,240 --> 00:11:01,520 Speaker 1: mean these had rotor wheels, and so you would type 194 00:11:01,679 --> 00:11:04,360 Speaker 1: a letter, let's say A, and depending on the way 195 00:11:04,400 --> 00:11:07,720 Speaker 1: the rotor wheels were set, it would produce a completely 196 00:11:07,760 --> 00:11:09,920 Speaker 1: different letter. Yeah. And the way it would produce it 197 00:11:09,960 --> 00:11:14,000 Speaker 1: as it had lamps twenty six lamps, each one marked 198 00:11:14,040 --> 00:11:16,960 Speaker 1: with a letter, and the lamp that lit up would 199 00:11:16,960 --> 00:11:21,800 Speaker 1: be the encoded letter for that particular key press. Yeah. 200 00:11:21,800 --> 00:11:23,640 Speaker 1: These were the ones used in World War Two. The 201 00:11:23,679 --> 00:11:26,720 Speaker 1: earlier ones did not have lamps. UM. But yeah, I 202 00:11:26,720 --> 00:11:29,400 Speaker 1: mean the ones that we're talking about, specifically around World 203 00:11:29,440 --> 00:11:31,680 Speaker 1: War two. That made it easier for the operator to 204 00:11:32,000 --> 00:11:34,880 Speaker 1: identify which letter was being used because these most of 205 00:11:34,880 --> 00:11:37,640 Speaker 1: these machines had no printer. Yeah. Usually you would have 206 00:11:37,679 --> 00:11:40,760 Speaker 1: two people working on both sides of this, both the 207 00:11:40,920 --> 00:11:43,360 Speaker 1: encoding and decoding side. You would have one person who 208 00:11:43,440 --> 00:11:45,520 Speaker 1: would be pressing the keys and another person who would 209 00:11:45,520 --> 00:11:51,120 Speaker 1: either be writing down the letter um the encoded letter, 210 00:11:51,160 --> 00:11:53,880 Speaker 1: or writing down the decoded letter. Because an important part 211 00:11:53,920 --> 00:11:55,880 Speaker 1: of the Enigma machine, and actually one of the reasons 212 00:11:55,920 --> 00:12:01,040 Speaker 1: why it was eventually broken, was that it was a 213 00:12:01,080 --> 00:12:03,880 Speaker 1: device that if if you if you type the let's 214 00:12:04,000 --> 00:12:07,000 Speaker 1: let's just say for for argument's sake, that if I 215 00:12:07,040 --> 00:12:09,960 Speaker 1: type the letter A, the letter Q comes up on 216 00:12:10,040 --> 00:12:12,960 Speaker 1: the lamp. Well, if I were to take a second 217 00:12:13,080 --> 00:12:16,600 Speaker 1: Enigma machine that was that was configured the same way 218 00:12:16,600 --> 00:12:18,640 Speaker 1: as the first one, and that's really important. We'll talk 219 00:12:18,679 --> 00:12:20,800 Speaker 1: more about why that is in a minute. And I 220 00:12:20,840 --> 00:12:24,040 Speaker 1: typed the letter Q, the letter A would light up, 221 00:12:24,600 --> 00:12:26,439 Speaker 1: and then all I would have to do, essentially, is 222 00:12:26,480 --> 00:12:29,520 Speaker 1: take my coded message that was sent to me, type 223 00:12:29,520 --> 00:12:32,440 Speaker 1: it out on my Enigma machine that is configured the 224 00:12:32,520 --> 00:12:37,160 Speaker 1: same way that the encoded message machines was configured, and 225 00:12:37,200 --> 00:12:39,760 Speaker 1: then have someone else write down which lamps let up 226 00:12:39,800 --> 00:12:43,120 Speaker 1: and I have the decoded message, except that the people 227 00:12:43,120 --> 00:12:45,640 Speaker 1: in England were saying, no, this is gibberish, it's new useless, 228 00:12:45,640 --> 00:12:49,040 Speaker 1: and someone says, no, you idiots in German. Anyway, the 229 00:12:50,160 --> 00:12:51,880 Speaker 1: I thought I would make you laughing. I thought about 230 00:12:51,920 --> 00:12:54,520 Speaker 1: that last night and I was just waiting to unleash it. 231 00:12:54,920 --> 00:12:57,600 Speaker 1: We have more to say about the Enigma machine and 232 00:12:57,640 --> 00:12:59,959 Speaker 1: how it worked, but first let's take a quick break 233 00:13:00,120 --> 00:13:09,920 Speaker 1: to thank our sponsor. The cool thing here is that, 234 00:13:09,920 --> 00:13:12,120 Speaker 1: all right, So imagine that each of these roters think 235 00:13:12,120 --> 00:13:15,840 Speaker 1: of it like a cylinder. Okay, so imagine a cylinder 236 00:13:16,720 --> 00:13:21,559 Speaker 1: and on the on the ends of the cylinder are 237 00:13:21,760 --> 00:13:24,480 Speaker 1: rods and contact points. So there's rods on one side 238 00:13:24,480 --> 00:13:26,800 Speaker 1: and contact points on the other. Right, Okay, this is 239 00:13:26,840 --> 00:13:30,480 Speaker 1: where an electrical current can flow through. Now there are 240 00:13:30,520 --> 00:13:34,200 Speaker 1: twenty six rods and twenty six contact points, so there's 241 00:13:34,240 --> 00:13:37,640 Speaker 1: one for each of the letters the alphabet. Now, if 242 00:13:37,720 --> 00:13:41,880 Speaker 1: you were silly, you would just wire these straight across, 243 00:13:42,200 --> 00:13:46,640 Speaker 1: so a would all Position one would would also would 244 00:13:46,679 --> 00:13:49,600 Speaker 1: be a straight wire from the rod to the contact 245 00:13:49,880 --> 00:13:53,439 Speaker 1: and position one. Now, of course that's not the way 246 00:13:53,440 --> 00:13:56,040 Speaker 1: the Enigma machine works. What happened was they wired it 247 00:13:56,120 --> 00:13:59,280 Speaker 1: so that position one would go to a different contact 248 00:13:59,320 --> 00:14:02,080 Speaker 1: on the other side. So position one might go to 249 00:14:03,200 --> 00:14:06,839 Speaker 1: Rod one might go to contact twelve. Rod two might 250 00:14:06,880 --> 00:14:09,880 Speaker 1: go to contact twenty three. Rod three might go to 251 00:14:09,960 --> 00:14:12,760 Speaker 1: contact one. That kind of thing. And you had this 252 00:14:12,920 --> 00:14:16,640 Speaker 1: massive wires inside the rotor that determine which ones went 253 00:14:16,640 --> 00:14:19,640 Speaker 1: to what. And then the rotor would fit inside the 254 00:14:19,760 --> 00:14:23,920 Speaker 1: Enigma machine, which would uh electricity from a battery would 255 00:14:23,960 --> 00:14:27,000 Speaker 1: come through, and depending on what key you pressed, that 256 00:14:27,040 --> 00:14:29,880 Speaker 1: would allow the pathway to go through to a certain rod. 257 00:14:30,640 --> 00:14:32,920 Speaker 1: The the electricity would go through the wire in the 258 00:14:33,040 --> 00:14:36,040 Speaker 1: rotor come out the side of the contact that again 259 00:14:36,200 --> 00:14:39,320 Speaker 1: is not directly across from the position of the rod. 260 00:14:39,600 --> 00:14:42,760 Speaker 1: And that's the basic idea of how it would substitute 261 00:14:42,760 --> 00:14:46,800 Speaker 1: a letter. Now if it if the rotor did not turn, 262 00:14:47,000 --> 00:14:49,280 Speaker 1: or if there were not more rotors, you would just 263 00:14:49,360 --> 00:14:53,320 Speaker 1: have a mono alphabetic substitution, like every time you type A, 264 00:14:53,720 --> 00:14:56,640 Speaker 1: the letter Q would light up if nothing else changed, 265 00:14:56,960 --> 00:14:58,760 Speaker 1: if that's all it did, in which case it would 266 00:14:58,760 --> 00:15:00,680 Speaker 1: have been a useless machine. But because people would have 267 00:15:00,680 --> 00:15:03,280 Speaker 1: been able to break that without ever having to spend 268 00:15:03,280 --> 00:15:04,920 Speaker 1: more than a couple of hours on a on a 269 00:15:05,320 --> 00:15:09,320 Speaker 1: on a message. Now, a lot of the machines, UM, 270 00:15:09,560 --> 00:15:13,440 Speaker 1: we're using three rotors. UM. Now here's here's where this 271 00:15:13,480 --> 00:15:17,480 Speaker 1: makes it more complex. Uh, these machines came with five 272 00:15:17,600 --> 00:15:22,640 Speaker 1: rotors uh named numbered with Roman numerals UM and every 273 00:15:23,200 --> 00:15:26,480 Speaker 1: here here again, here's part of the key. UM. The 274 00:15:26,520 --> 00:15:30,280 Speaker 1: German command would send out the monthly use of wheels. 275 00:15:30,280 --> 00:15:33,640 Speaker 1: So you might put the wheels in for one two, 276 00:15:34,520 --> 00:15:37,280 Speaker 1: so four would be in the leftmost position, one would 277 00:15:37,320 --> 00:15:38,640 Speaker 1: be in the middle, two would be in the right 278 00:15:38,640 --> 00:15:42,960 Speaker 1: most position. And every time the operator presses a letter, 279 00:15:43,000 --> 00:15:47,160 Speaker 1: let's say J the third. Actually, think of this if 280 00:15:47,200 --> 00:15:50,640 Speaker 1: you've ever seen a car odometer that measures the distance. 281 00:15:51,240 --> 00:15:54,560 Speaker 1: The rotor on the right moves one notch every time 282 00:15:54,600 --> 00:15:58,160 Speaker 1: the operator presses a button. So the operator press is J, 283 00:15:59,120 --> 00:16:01,760 Speaker 1: the rotor on the right turns one notch. The operator 284 00:16:01,800 --> 00:16:04,480 Speaker 1: presses in, the rotor turns one notch, and then the 285 00:16:04,520 --> 00:16:10,240 Speaker 1: middle um. Every so often, the middle rotor moves one notch, 286 00:16:11,080 --> 00:16:15,200 Speaker 1: and then again with the leftmost the final it moves 287 00:16:15,360 --> 00:16:19,680 Speaker 1: more slowly right, so as the operators typing the message out, 288 00:16:20,040 --> 00:16:24,040 Speaker 1: the rotors are turning to incipher the message more thoroughly. 289 00:16:24,960 --> 00:16:27,800 Speaker 1: The idea being that you're not repeating the same alphabet 290 00:16:28,520 --> 00:16:31,000 Speaker 1: to frequently. In fact, you it would take you, it 291 00:16:31,040 --> 00:16:33,600 Speaker 1: would take you an incredibly long message to be able 292 00:16:33,640 --> 00:16:36,160 Speaker 1: to repeat pete such an alphabet ah. And that's one 293 00:16:36,160 --> 00:16:38,920 Speaker 1: of the tricks. Eventually it could happen, which is why 294 00:16:38,960 --> 00:16:42,720 Speaker 1: the Germans limited their message length to two fifty characters. 295 00:16:42,760 --> 00:16:47,320 Speaker 1: So to to explain this even further, if I press 296 00:16:47,520 --> 00:16:49,880 Speaker 1: let's say that I just have the one rotor in there, 297 00:16:50,600 --> 00:16:53,040 Speaker 1: just for simplicity sakes, So I've got one rotor in there, 298 00:16:53,400 --> 00:16:55,520 Speaker 1: and if I press the letter A, the letter Q 299 00:16:55,840 --> 00:16:58,920 Speaker 1: lights up. Because that's just the way the wiring is 300 00:16:59,040 --> 00:17:02,720 Speaker 1: that rotor. After I pressed the letter A, the rotor 301 00:17:02,880 --> 00:17:06,800 Speaker 1: turns one notch. I pressed the letter A. Well, Q 302 00:17:07,000 --> 00:17:09,320 Speaker 1: is not gonna light up because what's just happened is 303 00:17:09,359 --> 00:17:12,920 Speaker 1: that there's a new rod where the electricity makes contact 304 00:17:12,920 --> 00:17:15,280 Speaker 1: with that rod. It's in position and you know A, 305 00:17:15,520 --> 00:17:18,199 Speaker 1: the first rod was in position one. Now that the 306 00:17:18,280 --> 00:17:21,320 Speaker 1: rotor has turned one notch, the rotor, the rod that's 307 00:17:21,320 --> 00:17:24,359 Speaker 1: in position for the letter A is rod too. So 308 00:17:24,400 --> 00:17:27,879 Speaker 1: instead of Q lighting up, maybe J lights up. So 309 00:17:27,960 --> 00:17:31,080 Speaker 1: you could just keep pressing A and a different letter 310 00:17:31,160 --> 00:17:33,600 Speaker 1: is going to light up every time, except for one 311 00:17:33,640 --> 00:17:35,960 Speaker 1: other exception we should point out, which was again something 312 00:17:36,000 --> 00:17:39,000 Speaker 1: that helped the Allies break the Enigma code. They the 313 00:17:39,080 --> 00:17:45,040 Speaker 1: Germans had decided foolishly, as it turns out, that no 314 00:17:45,280 --> 00:17:49,600 Speaker 1: letter would ever incipher to itself, so B can never 315 00:17:49,720 --> 00:17:51,680 Speaker 1: b B. Yes, so if you saw the letter B 316 00:17:51,880 --> 00:17:54,719 Speaker 1: in a message, you automatically knew it wasn't B. So 317 00:17:54,800 --> 00:17:57,520 Speaker 1: you've just you've just and that sounds like it's minuscule 318 00:17:57,640 --> 00:18:01,240 Speaker 1: that you've only eliminated one option, but that was huge. 319 00:18:01,880 --> 00:18:04,320 Speaker 1: I mean, without that, it would have been so much 320 00:18:04,359 --> 00:18:07,960 Speaker 1: harder to to decode these messages now when you add 321 00:18:08,000 --> 00:18:12,200 Speaker 1: that second rotor in uh so, let's say that again, 322 00:18:12,240 --> 00:18:14,960 Speaker 1: we're gonna go with the positions. So the so we 323 00:18:15,000 --> 00:18:16,800 Speaker 1: have the rods in the twenty six positions and the 324 00:18:16,840 --> 00:18:19,200 Speaker 1: contacts on the other side of the cylinder in twenty 325 00:18:19,280 --> 00:18:23,360 Speaker 1: six positions. Intristy comes in through rod one and it's 326 00:18:23,400 --> 00:18:28,400 Speaker 1: going out through contact twelve. Then you have your second rotors. 327 00:18:28,400 --> 00:18:33,440 Speaker 1: So the second rotor, Rod twelve is accepting the electricity, 328 00:18:33,480 --> 00:18:37,560 Speaker 1: but it's contact that the second rotors, Rod twelve is 329 00:18:37,560 --> 00:18:42,920 Speaker 1: connected to contact uh seven. So you've got now something 330 00:18:42,960 --> 00:18:45,720 Speaker 1: that's going in through contact or Rod one and coming 331 00:18:45,720 --> 00:18:48,639 Speaker 1: out contact seven. Once it gets through the second rotor, 332 00:18:48,880 --> 00:18:51,000 Speaker 1: you had a third rotor in. That makes it even 333 00:18:51,000 --> 00:18:53,879 Speaker 1: more complicated. So it's like you've just added a huge 334 00:18:53,920 --> 00:18:58,400 Speaker 1: mass of wires to this device and it gets even 335 00:18:58,600 --> 00:19:02,320 Speaker 1: more complex. I'm sorry, did you say huge massive wires? Yeah, 336 00:19:02,960 --> 00:19:07,520 Speaker 1: like the Stekker Brett. Yes, So here's where the massive 337 00:19:07,520 --> 00:19:11,240 Speaker 1: wires also comes in. There was a plugboard that came 338 00:19:11,280 --> 00:19:14,240 Speaker 1: with many of these Enigma machines, not all, but many. Yeah. 339 00:19:14,280 --> 00:19:17,360 Speaker 1: Do you remember if you think back to images you've 340 00:19:17,400 --> 00:19:20,000 Speaker 1: seen of old telephone operators when they had to connect 341 00:19:20,000 --> 00:19:23,080 Speaker 1: a call. They would physically take a wire and connect 342 00:19:23,359 --> 00:19:26,159 Speaker 1: one person and plug it into the slot for the 343 00:19:26,200 --> 00:19:30,439 Speaker 1: other person to make the connection. Well. On the Enigma machine, 344 00:19:31,080 --> 00:19:35,359 Speaker 1: uh they had wires and plugs that went from that 345 00:19:35,520 --> 00:19:38,520 Speaker 1: basically connected the letters. Yeah. So in other words, you 346 00:19:38,600 --> 00:19:41,240 Speaker 1: might connect the letter A and the letter J together 347 00:19:41,400 --> 00:19:43,679 Speaker 1: with A with a wire, which means every time you 348 00:19:43,720 --> 00:19:46,920 Speaker 1: press the letter A, it's acting as if you press 349 00:19:47,000 --> 00:19:50,800 Speaker 1: the letter J. So that add added yet another layer 350 00:19:51,000 --> 00:19:55,879 Speaker 1: of of encryption on top of this device. Uh So, No, 351 00:19:56,119 --> 00:20:00,000 Speaker 1: you're no longer sending a message to contact one because 352 00:20:00,040 --> 00:20:02,480 Speaker 1: as that would be the one for A, you're sending 353 00:20:02,480 --> 00:20:05,040 Speaker 1: it to different or not contact but Rod, you're seeing 354 00:20:05,040 --> 00:20:10,000 Speaker 1: it to a different Rod. Uh so, Sterling. Maybe so 355 00:20:10,160 --> 00:20:14,320 Speaker 1: by setting the alphabet position on each rotor, setting the 356 00:20:14,440 --> 00:20:17,400 Speaker 1: rotors in the particular order, choosing you know which rotor 357 00:20:17,440 --> 00:20:19,680 Speaker 1: you want. Because these rotors, by the way, we're not 358 00:20:20,119 --> 00:20:22,760 Speaker 1: um alpha. They if you were to look at a 359 00:20:22,840 --> 00:20:25,320 Speaker 1: rotor and turn it and it had the letters on it, 360 00:20:25,320 --> 00:20:28,280 Speaker 1: it would not be an alphabetical order. They mixed up 361 00:20:28,359 --> 00:20:30,560 Speaker 1: the order of the letters too. They wanted to make 362 00:20:30,560 --> 00:20:33,719 Speaker 1: it as complex as possible, so depending upon the the 363 00:20:33,840 --> 00:20:36,159 Speaker 1: rotors you choose the order you put them in and 364 00:20:36,160 --> 00:20:39,440 Speaker 1: the plugs that you plug into the plugboard. That would 365 00:20:39,480 --> 00:20:42,840 Speaker 1: determine what would happen if you pressed any particular key 366 00:20:42,960 --> 00:20:46,760 Speaker 1: at any particular time. Plus, it's in German and you're 367 00:20:46,840 --> 00:20:51,359 Speaker 1: probably transmitting it in morse code, so that's the level 368 00:20:51,600 --> 00:20:53,560 Speaker 1: that you have to get through in order to get 369 00:20:53,560 --> 00:20:57,960 Speaker 1: to that original message. In addition, UM, the Germans tended 370 00:20:58,000 --> 00:21:02,639 Speaker 1: to break up messages into regular patterns of UM five 371 00:21:02,760 --> 00:21:05,520 Speaker 1: characters at a time, so you know, a F B 372 00:21:05,800 --> 00:21:10,160 Speaker 1: Q G space, you know, so the message wasn't written out, 373 00:21:10,320 --> 00:21:13,359 Speaker 1: and so you wouldn't say, okay, well this this word 374 00:21:13,400 --> 00:21:16,240 Speaker 1: has three letters and they're only you know, yeah, there's 375 00:21:16,240 --> 00:21:19,160 Speaker 1: only so many word German that would have three letters. 376 00:21:19,240 --> 00:21:21,840 Speaker 1: They broke it up so that once, you know, there 377 00:21:21,920 --> 00:21:24,159 Speaker 1: was really no way to tell how long the word was. 378 00:21:24,400 --> 00:21:27,520 Speaker 1: So a single word and remember this is German, so 379 00:21:27,800 --> 00:21:31,840 Speaker 1: these words could be you know, characters long. So a 380 00:21:31,920 --> 00:21:36,600 Speaker 1: single word might might spend multiple five letters segments, so 381 00:21:36,680 --> 00:21:39,560 Speaker 1: you know, it might begin on letter four of this 382 00:21:39,760 --> 00:21:43,840 Speaker 1: five letter group and then finish three groups later down 383 00:21:43,880 --> 00:21:46,560 Speaker 1: the line. And that might have just been the word 384 00:21:46,640 --> 00:21:51,640 Speaker 1: for I don't know, like car um so, uh, yeah, 385 00:21:51,920 --> 00:21:54,800 Speaker 1: it just made it made it more difficult, obvious, skated 386 00:21:54,840 --> 00:21:57,360 Speaker 1: the meaning of the original phrase as much as possible. 387 00:21:58,160 --> 00:22:02,080 Speaker 1: So how would you ever decode such a message? Now? 388 00:22:02,119 --> 00:22:05,840 Speaker 1: If you've got it really set up so that everyone 389 00:22:06,000 --> 00:22:09,760 Speaker 1: knows how the how to set up their own particular 390 00:22:09,880 --> 00:22:12,800 Speaker 1: Enigma machine based upon a codebook, you would have to 391 00:22:12,840 --> 00:22:16,960 Speaker 1: have like a codebook that was um given out by leadership. Right, 392 00:22:17,000 --> 00:22:20,960 Speaker 1: you'd have to have someone in charge saying, on this day, 393 00:22:21,000 --> 00:22:23,520 Speaker 1: for all messages that we send out, this is the 394 00:22:23,560 --> 00:22:27,040 Speaker 1: configuration you have to use, because if you didn't have it, 395 00:22:27,040 --> 00:22:30,399 Speaker 1: you wouldn't be able to decode it. Right. The German 396 00:22:30,440 --> 00:22:33,560 Speaker 1: command would specify the wheel order and the ring setting, 397 00:22:33,600 --> 00:22:37,040 Speaker 1: and the the steckering the cross plugging. Stecker means plug, 398 00:22:37,240 --> 00:22:39,400 Speaker 1: so they called it a plug board. It was Stecker 399 00:22:39,440 --> 00:22:42,679 Speaker 1: brett um. But the thing is the cipher clerk would 400 00:22:42,880 --> 00:22:45,600 Speaker 1: uh would basically turn the three wheels to a position 401 00:22:46,040 --> 00:22:50,159 Speaker 1: at random whatever he wanted it to be, and then 402 00:22:50,200 --> 00:22:53,840 Speaker 1: they would twice put in the own randomly random text 403 00:22:53,840 --> 00:22:57,159 Speaker 1: setting or message setting UM. And this was the indicator, 404 00:22:57,200 --> 00:23:00,400 Speaker 1: which is six letter character UM. And then you set 405 00:23:00,440 --> 00:23:05,080 Speaker 1: your wheels at that three letter text setting and it 406 00:23:05,119 --> 00:23:09,560 Speaker 1: would give you the UM, the the code that the 407 00:23:09,600 --> 00:23:11,679 Speaker 1: person who would on the other side is supposed to 408 00:23:11,680 --> 00:23:14,439 Speaker 1: know to get through it. Um. The thing is it 409 00:23:14,440 --> 00:23:17,320 Speaker 1: would always have This is another thing that that boggles 410 00:23:17,320 --> 00:23:19,879 Speaker 1: in mind to me. UM, with something with a device 411 00:23:19,960 --> 00:23:23,840 Speaker 1: this capable. UM. They would transmit some things in clear text, 412 00:23:23,920 --> 00:23:28,560 Speaker 1: like the preamble basically say the time of day, the 413 00:23:28,640 --> 00:23:30,840 Speaker 1: number of letters in the text, and things like that 414 00:23:30,840 --> 00:23:33,720 Speaker 1: that was sent and clear. I guess it was necessary, 415 00:23:33,760 --> 00:23:37,320 Speaker 1: but it made it easier to figure out exactly what 416 00:23:37,400 --> 00:23:39,200 Speaker 1: was going on and when it was set. And that 417 00:23:39,600 --> 00:23:42,600 Speaker 1: turned out to be important later. Um. And they would 418 00:23:43,040 --> 00:23:46,119 Speaker 1: tell you, you you know, certain things, um, you know, and 419 00:23:46,160 --> 00:23:48,520 Speaker 1: everything came out in five letter groups and the indicator 420 00:23:48,520 --> 00:23:51,760 Speaker 1: which was in six letters. They changed that later, which 421 00:23:51,760 --> 00:23:54,040 Speaker 1: made it more difficult for the Allies, but still at 422 00:23:54,080 --> 00:23:56,679 Speaker 1: that point it was too late. Yeah. And Uh. It 423 00:23:56,760 --> 00:23:59,879 Speaker 1: also didn't help that, you know, the Allies new to 424 00:24:00,119 --> 00:24:02,879 Speaker 1: look for certain words that would be used over and 425 00:24:02,920 --> 00:24:06,240 Speaker 1: over again in messages. They called them cribs. Yes, they 426 00:24:06,240 --> 00:24:10,680 Speaker 1: would look for these cribs are possible cribs and uh, 427 00:24:11,040 --> 00:24:15,000 Speaker 1: based upon just letter groupings, and they could, you know, 428 00:24:15,160 --> 00:24:19,520 Speaker 1: eliminate cribs from certain groups of letters. Again, because if 429 00:24:19,600 --> 00:24:21,840 Speaker 1: a certain letter appeared at a certain part of a 430 00:24:21,880 --> 00:24:24,480 Speaker 1: word and it was the same letter that should have been, 431 00:24:24,560 --> 00:24:27,280 Speaker 1: you knew it wasn't that word, right, because of course 432 00:24:27,320 --> 00:24:30,960 Speaker 1: I letters never going encode as itself using an Enigma machine. 433 00:24:31,280 --> 00:24:35,879 Speaker 1: So um yeah, using these basic rules, it sounds like 434 00:24:35,920 --> 00:24:38,480 Speaker 1: it's astronomical, like the number of things you would have 435 00:24:38,520 --> 00:24:40,920 Speaker 1: to eliminate, and really it is pretty it's a pretty 436 00:24:40,920 --> 00:24:43,639 Speaker 1: big number. But that's where folks like Touring came in. 437 00:24:43,720 --> 00:24:47,920 Speaker 1: They they knew a bit about the Enigma machine already 438 00:24:47,960 --> 00:24:52,960 Speaker 1: because the Enigma, the whole rotor based cryptography device, as 439 00:24:53,040 --> 00:24:56,879 Speaker 1: Chris said, predated World War Two. Yeah, it's not that 440 00:24:56,960 --> 00:24:58,920 Speaker 1: the trick is not getting your hands on a machine. 441 00:24:59,400 --> 00:25:03,040 Speaker 1: It's figure out how what settings the machine is being 442 00:25:03,160 --> 00:25:05,480 Speaker 1: used to encode so that you can break the message. 443 00:25:05,520 --> 00:25:07,520 Speaker 1: Although it did help because if you got your hands 444 00:25:07,520 --> 00:25:09,080 Speaker 1: on the machine, you could at least find out what 445 00:25:09,119 --> 00:25:11,560 Speaker 1: the wiring was, yes, and you could you could then 446 00:25:12,000 --> 00:25:15,800 Speaker 1: start to eliminate various combinations because you're going to say, okay, 447 00:25:16,080 --> 00:25:19,560 Speaker 1: if it's if it's a Roman numeral one rotor, then 448 00:25:19,680 --> 00:25:22,440 Speaker 1: this position is always going to map to this contact 449 00:25:23,040 --> 00:25:26,159 Speaker 1: and you could start to eliminate things that way. Uh. 450 00:25:26,400 --> 00:25:30,480 Speaker 1: They they over in Poland there were cryptographers who are 451 00:25:30,520 --> 00:25:34,960 Speaker 1: breaking these codes before World War two broke out, Yes, unfortunate, 452 00:25:34,960 --> 00:25:36,480 Speaker 1: and they had a machine that they would use to 453 00:25:36,480 --> 00:25:40,840 Speaker 1: do that called the bomba yep and uh and someone 454 00:25:40,920 --> 00:25:44,520 Speaker 1: set them up the bomba yeah. Actually they when war 455 00:25:44,600 --> 00:25:49,320 Speaker 1: broke out and it became obvious that things were uh, 456 00:25:50,000 --> 00:25:51,520 Speaker 1: that it was going to be discovered that they were 457 00:25:51,520 --> 00:25:54,520 Speaker 1: able to do this, the machine was destroyed, which is 458 00:25:54,800 --> 00:25:56,719 Speaker 1: some of the Some of the code breakers made their 459 00:25:56,760 --> 00:25:59,520 Speaker 1: way over to England and helped the English code breakers 460 00:26:00,119 --> 00:26:02,600 Speaker 1: by adding to the level of knowledge about what the 461 00:26:02,720 --> 00:26:06,400 Speaker 1: Enigma machine was and how it worked. They also had 462 00:26:06,440 --> 00:26:11,760 Speaker 1: some breakthroughs that stemmed just from from luck and and 463 00:26:11,880 --> 00:26:16,520 Speaker 1: uh and bravery really because we're talking about uh times 464 00:26:16,560 --> 00:26:21,679 Speaker 1: where where Allies captured a German group that had an 465 00:26:21,840 --> 00:26:25,880 Speaker 1: Enigma machine, often something like a submarine. Um, they would 466 00:26:25,960 --> 00:26:28,040 Speaker 1: capture that and if they were able to they could 467 00:26:28,080 --> 00:26:31,040 Speaker 1: get the machine and the codebook, which would essentially tell 468 00:26:31,080 --> 00:26:34,399 Speaker 1: them pretty much everything they needed to know. But uh, 469 00:26:34,520 --> 00:26:39,400 Speaker 1: meanwhile Touring was working on his own BOMBA. Yes, he was, um. Yeah, 470 00:26:39,720 --> 00:26:42,359 Speaker 1: before we go into uh into that I want to 471 00:26:42,359 --> 00:26:45,720 Speaker 1: point out that we left out there. There's more to 472 00:26:46,119 --> 00:26:49,639 Speaker 1: the Enigma machines UM than we really went into, and 473 00:26:49,680 --> 00:26:52,080 Speaker 1: I would recommend if you're interested in learning more UM, 474 00:26:52,080 --> 00:26:56,560 Speaker 1: there's a website for UH, the Crypto Museum, which is 475 00:26:56,680 --> 00:26:59,200 Speaker 1: in the Netherlands. It's a virtual museum, but crypto museum 476 00:26:59,280 --> 00:27:03,320 Speaker 1: dot com. UM. We'll tell you probably everything you ever 477 00:27:03,359 --> 00:27:06,880 Speaker 1: wanted to know about the Enigma machines and UH and more. 478 00:27:07,680 --> 00:27:10,359 Speaker 1: Have you guys cracked the code yet? Yes, there was 479 00:27:10,400 --> 00:27:14,400 Speaker 1: a code hidden in this episode. Think it over while 480 00:27:14,440 --> 00:27:24,920 Speaker 1: we take a break to thank our sponsor. The Navy, 481 00:27:24,960 --> 00:27:27,199 Speaker 1: by the way, that was the three rotor machine was 482 00:27:27,240 --> 00:27:30,200 Speaker 1: the one used by the Army Air Force. The Navy 483 00:27:30,280 --> 00:27:33,879 Speaker 1: had a four wheel machine, yes, which was even more complex, 484 00:27:34,040 --> 00:27:38,600 Speaker 1: and the the Secret Service, UH, the people who were 485 00:27:38,600 --> 00:27:41,680 Speaker 1: in the the high intelligence groups used a completely different machine. 486 00:27:41,680 --> 00:27:45,040 Speaker 1: We're not completely different, but UH used even more difficult 487 00:27:45,040 --> 00:27:47,600 Speaker 1: machine to crack UM than that, and they all had 488 00:27:47,680 --> 00:27:51,000 Speaker 1: different variations on that. And in general, the Navy tended 489 00:27:51,040 --> 00:27:54,560 Speaker 1: to practice better security measures and UH made it. It 490 00:27:54,560 --> 00:27:57,080 Speaker 1: made it much more challenging to break that code. The 491 00:27:57,200 --> 00:28:01,080 Speaker 1: Army and Air Force, by contrast, were not as as 492 00:28:01,200 --> 00:28:05,000 Speaker 1: careful and so their codes were broken faster than the 493 00:28:05,080 --> 00:28:11,359 Speaker 1: Navy's UM. It's you know, part of part of decoding 494 00:28:11,480 --> 00:28:15,720 Speaker 1: the the Enigma machine came into figuring out the wiring 495 00:28:15,840 --> 00:28:19,159 Speaker 1: of the system, and part of it came from, you know, 496 00:28:19,200 --> 00:28:22,760 Speaker 1: more traditional cryptographic approaches where you're looking for patterns and 497 00:28:22,800 --> 00:28:24,920 Speaker 1: you're looking for a key phrases, and you're looking for 498 00:28:25,600 --> 00:28:30,560 Speaker 1: uh things that could indicate that um that you've stumbled 499 00:28:30,560 --> 00:28:33,680 Speaker 1: onto something. So if you if you receive several coded messages, 500 00:28:34,160 --> 00:28:36,120 Speaker 1: I think a lot of problems is that we think 501 00:28:36,160 --> 00:28:38,640 Speaker 1: of of decoding as you get one message and you're 502 00:28:38,640 --> 00:28:40,680 Speaker 1: trying to figure it all out based on that one message. 503 00:28:40,920 --> 00:28:43,760 Speaker 1: There were hundreds of messages sent. So if you have 504 00:28:43,840 --> 00:28:46,560 Speaker 1: hundreds of messages sent and you're working under the assumption 505 00:28:46,640 --> 00:28:51,440 Speaker 1: that everyone has is using the same basic layout for 506 00:28:51,480 --> 00:28:54,840 Speaker 1: their Enigma machine, you start looking for patterns, and if 507 00:28:54,840 --> 00:28:57,400 Speaker 1: you find enough patterns, you might say, oh, all right, well, 508 00:28:57,480 --> 00:28:59,960 Speaker 1: look these these two messages here start with the same 509 00:29:01,480 --> 00:29:05,160 Speaker 1: essentially the same uh patterns, So that may suggest that 510 00:29:05,200 --> 00:29:08,320 Speaker 1: they're both starting with the same word. So let's start 511 00:29:08,360 --> 00:29:10,440 Speaker 1: working back. And it may even be when I'm talking 512 00:29:10,480 --> 00:29:13,080 Speaker 1: about patterns, I'm not even necessarily talking about the same 513 00:29:13,160 --> 00:29:17,920 Speaker 1: ciphered letters, because again if if if German A has 514 00:29:18,120 --> 00:29:22,400 Speaker 1: set the rotors to a certain alphabet setting to start off, 515 00:29:22,400 --> 00:29:25,719 Speaker 1: and German B has chosen a totally different set, Uh, 516 00:29:25,760 --> 00:29:29,959 Speaker 1: you're looking again at the actual pattern of of letter occurrence, 517 00:29:30,080 --> 00:29:33,080 Speaker 1: not which letters they are. You know, it also helps 518 00:29:33,120 --> 00:29:36,240 Speaker 1: to have a thorough knowledge of German, much more than 519 00:29:36,400 --> 00:29:39,960 Speaker 1: my one year and Kyle in high school enabled me 520 00:29:40,040 --> 00:29:43,160 Speaker 1: to UH fake my way through that greeting. UM. No. 521 00:29:43,320 --> 00:29:47,520 Speaker 1: They also look at contact analysis, which is basically how 522 00:29:47,680 --> 00:29:52,040 Speaker 1: frequently one letter will be next to another in a language. 523 00:29:52,360 --> 00:29:56,000 Speaker 1: So if you know UH German, then you're able to 524 00:29:56,040 --> 00:30:01,400 Speaker 1: know certain things about the way uh certain words are 525 00:30:01,440 --> 00:30:05,120 Speaker 1: more common than other certain letter formations. So I think 526 00:30:05,200 --> 00:30:09,040 Speaker 1: in in a lot of ways, UM, until the Allies 527 00:30:09,080 --> 00:30:13,080 Speaker 1: were able to get ahold of UH, you know more 528 00:30:13,120 --> 00:30:19,680 Speaker 1: thorough um code cracking materials. I think the traditional code 529 00:30:19,680 --> 00:30:23,959 Speaker 1: breaking tools like cribs and UH and contact analysis were 530 00:30:23,960 --> 00:30:27,920 Speaker 1: probably very helpful to them. UM. But what's really funny 531 00:30:27,960 --> 00:30:31,160 Speaker 1: to me is in in doing my research, I was 532 00:30:31,200 --> 00:30:35,520 Speaker 1: reading about John Harribl Uh, the Cambridge mathematician. He was 533 00:30:35,520 --> 00:30:39,360 Speaker 1: twenty one years old, UM, and he was looking to 534 00:30:39,600 --> 00:30:42,720 Speaker 1: UH to get into the cipher known as red um 535 00:30:42,760 --> 00:30:45,160 Speaker 1: that the Germans had used. And what's funny to me 536 00:30:45,320 --> 00:30:49,560 Speaker 1: is he actually stumbled upon something that we look at 537 00:30:49,800 --> 00:30:52,400 Speaker 1: on that we've actually sort of talked about on the show. 538 00:30:52,480 --> 00:30:55,680 Speaker 1: We've talked about passwords UM. He figured that at some 539 00:30:55,800 --> 00:31:00,120 Speaker 1: point UH they were gonna get lazy and stop changing 540 00:31:00,440 --> 00:31:03,560 Speaker 1: things and stop changing the keys that people would use 541 00:31:03,640 --> 00:31:07,920 Speaker 1: for their uh UM, the codes that they would use 542 00:31:07,920 --> 00:31:09,480 Speaker 1: at the beginning of the message to tell you which 543 00:31:09,560 --> 00:31:13,680 Speaker 1: rotor settings. Basically, people would start using UH the name 544 00:31:13,760 --> 00:31:18,840 Speaker 1: of their dog or their girlfriend to start encoding the messages, 545 00:31:18,840 --> 00:31:21,000 Speaker 1: and they were going to start leaving it there. Once 546 00:31:21,080 --> 00:31:22,920 Speaker 1: the first message of the day was sent. They're not 547 00:31:22,960 --> 00:31:25,920 Speaker 1: going to change it for every message anymore because they're 548 00:31:25,960 --> 00:31:28,560 Speaker 1: in a hurry or they're lazy, and they're not going 549 00:31:28,600 --> 00:31:32,400 Speaker 1: to change it. And at first UM apparently this didn't 550 00:31:33,040 --> 00:31:35,320 Speaker 1: They were abiding by the rules, they were doing things 551 00:31:35,320 --> 00:31:37,160 Speaker 1: the way they were supposed to. But as soon as 552 00:31:37,160 --> 00:31:42,440 Speaker 1: people became complacent and started leaving that setting throughout the day, 553 00:31:42,600 --> 00:31:45,160 Speaker 1: once they had cracked the first message of the day, 554 00:31:45,240 --> 00:31:47,200 Speaker 1: they were set and they were able to they could 555 00:31:47,800 --> 00:31:50,360 Speaker 1: identify this and they basically asked for all the messages 556 00:31:50,400 --> 00:31:54,000 Speaker 1: sent across all of the machines for the first one 557 00:31:54,000 --> 00:31:56,760 Speaker 1: of the day. And once they were able to do that, um, 558 00:31:56,960 --> 00:32:01,400 Speaker 1: they were able to crack read and basically identify what 559 00:32:01,440 --> 00:32:04,280 Speaker 1: was going on for the entire days communications. And that 560 00:32:04,360 --> 00:32:10,360 Speaker 1: happened around or so um, which was fairly early four. 561 00:32:10,400 --> 00:32:12,280 Speaker 1: I mean it was before the Americans got involved, but 562 00:32:12,400 --> 00:32:14,440 Speaker 1: of course Europe had been embroiled in war for a 563 00:32:14,440 --> 00:32:17,960 Speaker 1: while at that point. Um. But that's a pretty that's 564 00:32:17,960 --> 00:32:19,680 Speaker 1: one of those things where we tell you not to 565 00:32:19,720 --> 00:32:24,280 Speaker 1: be careless with your passwords, and you know, even back then, 566 00:32:25,280 --> 00:32:28,840 Speaker 1: it's just sort of ironic to me. Yeah, it's interesting. Um. 567 00:32:29,080 --> 00:32:33,600 Speaker 1: The you know, it's you're talking about a device that 568 00:32:33,680 --> 00:32:36,640 Speaker 1: once you start to encode the message, that's a very 569 00:32:36,680 --> 00:32:41,760 Speaker 1: time consuming process, you know, setting your device the proper 570 00:32:41,800 --> 00:32:44,720 Speaker 1: way and then starting to actually encode it and to 571 00:32:44,840 --> 00:32:48,400 Speaker 1: confirm that you know, you that the letters you are 572 00:32:48,400 --> 00:32:51,920 Speaker 1: writing down are indeed the correct ones based upon that configuration. 573 00:32:53,000 --> 00:32:55,320 Speaker 1: It's the longer the messages, the longer is going to 574 00:32:55,320 --> 00:32:58,560 Speaker 1: take to encode. And that means that the greater the 575 00:32:58,560 --> 00:33:00,760 Speaker 1: span of time between when the message was written and 576 00:33:00,840 --> 00:33:04,560 Speaker 1: when the message is received becomes and that that all 577 00:33:04,600 --> 00:33:06,920 Speaker 1: of that I think leads to that sort of lazy 578 00:33:07,000 --> 00:33:10,400 Speaker 1: behavior because you don't want to uh uh, you know, 579 00:33:10,520 --> 00:33:14,520 Speaker 1: suffer problems because you were too slow. So yeah, I 580 00:33:14,560 --> 00:33:17,080 Speaker 1: mean there were a lot of different reasons why this happened, 581 00:33:17,160 --> 00:33:18,360 Speaker 1: and I think a part of it was just because 582 00:33:18,360 --> 00:33:19,920 Speaker 1: it's such a huge pain in the butt. But that's 583 00:33:19,920 --> 00:33:22,080 Speaker 1: the point. I mean, if cryptography wasn't a pain in 584 00:33:22,120 --> 00:33:26,800 Speaker 1: the butt, then there will be no secrecy there. You 585 00:33:26,880 --> 00:33:30,160 Speaker 1: have to make it difficult enough so that the message 586 00:33:30,160 --> 00:33:34,680 Speaker 1: remains safe. So once we started getting tired of going 587 00:33:34,720 --> 00:33:38,800 Speaker 1: to those pains, there's no more safety, yea yea um. 588 00:33:38,840 --> 00:33:41,480 Speaker 1: But yeah, we we talked about Alan turing Um and 589 00:33:41,520 --> 00:33:46,440 Speaker 1: he invented a machine known as the the van Barismus Um, 590 00:33:46,720 --> 00:33:49,920 Speaker 1: which I don't know why I called it that, um, 591 00:33:49,960 --> 00:33:53,320 Speaker 1: but yeah, basically it was able to identify patterns in 592 00:33:53,520 --> 00:33:57,080 Speaker 1: the text messages and that just made it faster for 593 00:33:57,120 --> 00:33:59,320 Speaker 1: the allies to be able to track things down. Yeah. 594 00:33:59,760 --> 00:34:05,120 Speaker 1: I think his machine was capable of decoding a Enigma 595 00:34:05,360 --> 00:34:09,000 Speaker 1: message within something like fifteen hours, which sounds like it's 596 00:34:09,040 --> 00:34:11,200 Speaker 1: a long time, but when you're talking about eliminating all 597 00:34:11,239 --> 00:34:14,400 Speaker 1: those possibilities. It's pretty incredible, especially you're talking. You know, 598 00:34:15,280 --> 00:34:19,520 Speaker 1: this is this, these are the developments that led into computers, 599 00:34:20,080 --> 00:34:22,960 Speaker 1: and that this predates computers, but these devices sort of 600 00:34:23,000 --> 00:34:26,600 Speaker 1: became the precursor to the computer. And you know, it's 601 00:34:26,640 --> 00:34:28,719 Speaker 1: one of the reasons why we talked about touring being 602 00:34:29,200 --> 00:34:34,560 Speaker 1: a father of of computing and computer science, because it's 603 00:34:34,600 --> 00:34:37,440 Speaker 1: this sort of stuff that that led to computers in 604 00:34:37,480 --> 00:34:40,759 Speaker 1: the first place. Yeah, they I think Also one of 605 00:34:40,800 --> 00:34:44,200 Speaker 1: the misconceptions is that that the machine known as Colossus 606 00:34:45,360 --> 00:34:48,920 Speaker 1: was used in breaking the Enigma ciphers, and that actually 607 00:34:49,000 --> 00:34:52,200 Speaker 1: is not true. UM. Colossus is frequently referred to as 608 00:34:52,239 --> 00:34:56,880 Speaker 1: one of the first electronic computers UM, but it was 609 00:34:56,920 --> 00:35:00,920 Speaker 1: actually used to break the Lorenz cipher system, which is 610 00:35:00,960 --> 00:35:04,920 Speaker 1: another a different machine UM that was used by the 611 00:35:04,960 --> 00:35:08,520 Speaker 1: German Army High Command UM and Lorenz is the name 612 00:35:08,520 --> 00:35:12,280 Speaker 1: of a company and they basically UH had been working 613 00:35:12,280 --> 00:35:16,040 Speaker 1: on a completely different type of machine UM that did 614 00:35:16,080 --> 00:35:19,800 Speaker 1: not use the Enigma codes. But yeah, they used UM 615 00:35:19,840 --> 00:35:25,360 Speaker 1: the British used Colossus to UH figure out the Lorenz system. UM. 616 00:35:25,440 --> 00:35:28,080 Speaker 1: But yeah, that that actually is the machine that we 617 00:35:28,239 --> 00:35:32,719 Speaker 1: talked about back in our UM chip Tunes podcast. When 618 00:35:32,920 --> 00:35:36,080 Speaker 1: pixel Hate was had been allowed into the Bletchley Park 619 00:35:36,280 --> 00:35:39,879 Speaker 1: Museum to record the mechanical relays. And of course, uh 620 00:35:39,920 --> 00:35:44,320 Speaker 1: today's computers uh as in terms of processing power could 621 00:35:44,520 --> 00:35:49,239 Speaker 1: do the work that these machines did in scant a 622 00:35:49,320 --> 00:35:52,320 Speaker 1: fraction of what the time needed to do that then, 623 00:35:52,920 --> 00:35:57,000 Speaker 1: but and can more thoroughly encrypt messages. I mean, even 624 00:35:57,160 --> 00:35:59,920 Speaker 1: the freeware tools that you can get now to ENCRYPTI 625 00:36:00,040 --> 00:36:03,239 Speaker 1: Neil are more thorough than than these machines were. But 626 00:36:03,800 --> 00:36:07,479 Speaker 1: it's still very fascinating stuff. Yeah, yeah, and um yeah, 627 00:36:07,480 --> 00:36:10,040 Speaker 1: it was really I would love to actually get a 628 00:36:10,120 --> 00:36:12,400 Speaker 1: chance to to see one of these devices, and there 629 00:36:12,400 --> 00:36:14,239 Speaker 1: aren't quite a few of them, many many in the 630 00:36:14,440 --> 00:36:17,960 Speaker 1: museums and things like that. Um, but I've never actually, 631 00:36:18,160 --> 00:36:19,839 Speaker 1: I mean I've seen plenty of pictures, but I've never 632 00:36:19,880 --> 00:36:24,560 Speaker 1: actually seen one of these devices. Uh you know, kind 633 00:36:24,560 --> 00:36:27,440 Speaker 1: of curious one to play with one. And that wraps 634 00:36:27,520 --> 00:36:29,719 Speaker 1: up another classic episode. Hey you know that thing I 635 00:36:29,719 --> 00:36:33,160 Speaker 1: said about a secret code in the episode, I lied, 636 00:36:33,480 --> 00:36:36,680 Speaker 1: there's no secret code. I I just wanted to seem 637 00:36:36,719 --> 00:36:41,160 Speaker 1: cool for just a second. It's all I have. But 638 00:36:41,200 --> 00:36:43,640 Speaker 1: if you guys have something, you know, like an idea 639 00:36:43,719 --> 00:36:46,440 Speaker 1: for a future episode of tech Stuff, something that in 640 00:36:46,480 --> 00:36:49,600 Speaker 1: the far future can become a classic episode of tech Stuff. 641 00:36:50,040 --> 00:36:52,880 Speaker 1: Let me know. Send me an email. My address is 642 00:36:52,960 --> 00:36:55,759 Speaker 1: tech stuff at how stuff works dot com, or draw 643 00:36:55,800 --> 00:36:57,600 Speaker 1: me a line on Facebook or Twitter. The handle for 644 00:36:57,719 --> 00:37:00,760 Speaker 1: both of those is text stuff HS double you head 645 00:37:00,760 --> 00:37:04,200 Speaker 1: on over to our merchandise store over at t public 646 00:37:04,280 --> 00:37:09,439 Speaker 1: dot com slash tech Stuff. There you can buy tote bags, stickers, 647 00:37:09,560 --> 00:37:12,080 Speaker 1: t shirts, all sorts of cool stuff with tech Stuff 648 00:37:12,120 --> 00:37:15,640 Speaker 1: logos and and more on it. And every single purchase 649 00:37:15,680 --> 00:37:18,200 Speaker 1: you make goes to help the show, so we appreciate it. 650 00:37:18,520 --> 00:37:20,600 Speaker 1: And don't forget to follow us on Instagram and I'll 651 00:37:20,600 --> 00:37:29,680 Speaker 1: talk to you again really soon for more on this 652 00:37:29,840 --> 00:37:32,319 Speaker 1: and thousands of other topics. Is that how stuff works 653 00:37:32,360 --> 00:37:42,640 Speaker 1: dot com.