History of Cryptology
(hidden writing)
Cryptology is the study of hidden writing. It comes from the Greek words Kryptos,
meaning hidden, and Graphen, meaning to write. Cryptology is actually the study
of codes and ciphers. Concealment messages aren't actually encoded or enciphered,
they are just hidden. Invisible ink is a good example of a concealment message.
A code is a prearranged word, sentence, or paragraph replacement system. Foreign
languages are just like secret code, where the English word "hi" is represented as
the word "Hola" in Spanish, or some other word in another language. Most codes have
a code book for encoding and decoding.
The name cipher originates from the Hebrew word "Saphar," meaning "to number." Most
ciphers are systematic in nature, often making use of mathematical numbering techniques.
One example of a cipher is the Spartan stick method.
The Spartans enciphered and concealed a message by using a scytale, a special stick
and belt. The encipherer would wrap the belt around the stick and write a message
on it. The belt was then unwound from the stick and sent to another person. Using
a stick of similar size, the decipherer would wrap the belt around the stick to watch the
secret message appear. If a stick of the wrong size appeared the message would be
scrambled. Try this with 2 or 3 pencils bound together to make a stick, a long strip
of paper, and another pencil for writing.
Julius Caesar used a simple alphabet (letter) substitution, offset by 3 letters.
Taking the word "help" you would move ahead in the alphabet 3 letters to get "jgnr."
This worked for a while, until more people learned to read and studied his secret
cipher.
Gabriel de Lavinde made cryptology a more formally understood science when he published
his first manual on cryptology in 1379. A variety of codes and mechanical devices
were developed over the next few centuries to encode, decode, encipher, and decipher
messages.
In the 1600's Cardinal Richelieu invented the grille. He created a card with holes
in it and used it to write a secret message. When he was done he removed the card
and wrote a letter to fill in the blanks and make the message look like a normal
letter. The grille proved to be difficult to solve unless the decoder had the card which
created the encrypted message.
In 1776 Arthur Lee, an American, developed a code book. It wasn't long before the
US army adopted a code book of their own for use in the military.
The Rosetta Stone (black basalt), found in Egypt in 1799, had a message encrypted
on its surface in three different languages! Greek, Egyptian, and Hieroglyphics
messages all said the same thing. Once the Greek and Egyptian languages were found
to have the same message the Hieroglyphics language was deciphered by referencing each letter
to a symbol!
Morse Code, developed by Samuel Morse in 1832, is not really a code at all. It is
a way of enciphering (cipher) letters of the alphabet into long and short sounds.
The invention of the telegraph, along with Morse code, helped people to communicate
over long distances. Morse code can be used in any language and takes only 1 to 10 hours
of instruction/practice to learn! The first Morse code sent by telegraph was "What
hath God wrought?", in 1844.
During WWI Karl Lody sent the following telegram "Aunt, please send money immediately.
I am absolutely broke. Thank heaven those German swine are on the run." The clerk
realized that this message didn't make any sense and forwarded it to the proper authorities who found Karl Lody guilty of espionage (spying). Can you see why his message
must be a secret code or cipher? Why doesn't it make any sense?
In 1917, during WWI, the US army cryptographic department broke the code of the Germans.
The code was actually stolen by Alexander Szek, a man working in a radio station
in Brussels at the time. Unknown to the Germans, Szek was an English sympathizer
and was stealing a few code words every day. When the Zimmerman telegraph was sent in
1918, asking Mexico to go to war against the United States, the US army cryptography
department broke the code and decoded the telegraph.
The Germans learned from this experience and changed their codes. But the British
were able to obtain copies of new code books from sunken submarines, blown up airplanes,
etc., to continue breaking the new codes. By WWII navy code books were bound in
lead to help the code books sink to the bottom of the ocean in the event of an enemy
takeover.
The little known native Indian language of the Navajo was used by the US in WWII as
a simple word substitution code. There were 65 letters and numbers that were used
to encipher a single word prior to the use of the Navajo language. The Navajo language
was much faster and accurate compared to earlier ciphers and was heavily used in the
battle of Io-jima.
The Germans in WWII used codes but also employed other types of secret writings.
One suspected spy was found to have large numbers of keys in his motel room. After
inspecting the keys it was found that some of the keys were modified to unscrew at
the top to show a plastic nib. The keys contained special chemicals for invisible ink!
However, codes and secret ink messages were very easily captured and decoded.
The Germans, responsible for much of the cipher science today, developed complex ciphers
near the end of WWII. They enciphered messages and sent them at high rates of speed
across radio wave bands in Morse code. To the unexpecting it sounded like static
in the background. One gentleman tried to better understand the static and listened
to it over and over again. The last time he played his recording he forgot to wind
his phonograph. The static played at a very slow speed and was soon recognized as
a pattern, Morse code!
The invention of computers in the 20th century revolutionized cryptology. IBM corporation
created a code, Data Encryption Standard (DES), that has not been broken to this
day. Thousands of complex codes and ciphers have been programmed into computers
so that computers can algorithmically unscramble secret messages and encrypted files.
Some of the more fun secret writings are concealment messages like invisible inks
made out of potato juice, lemon juice, and other types of juices and sugars! Deciphering and decoding messages take a lot of time and be very frustrating. But with experience, strategies, and most of all, luck, you'll be able to crack lots of codes and ciphers.