[inforoots] Lorenz/Colossus, was ENIGMA MACHINE TO BE REACTIVATED AFTER 60 YEARSu

[Jay & Sharon McCauley]

http://www.codesandciphers.org.uk/lorenz/
has a detailed description of the Lorenz cipher aka
Fish, and of the Colossus. The author, Tony Sale,
actually built a replica that went operational in May
2004. There is a very detailed description of how
Colossus worked/s, pictures etc. In my best pointy
eared voice, "Fascinating!"
jay
--- Mike Albaugh <albaugh at perilin.com> wrote:
<snip>
> 
> Actually, As far as I know, Colossus was built to
> aid in the
> cryptanalysis of traffic in the Lorentz (sp?)
> cipher, a very
> different German Cipher. The Enigma traffic was
> deciphered
> by a combination of "Bombe"s and skull-sweat.
> 
> Again, vaguely recalling a talk that I believe was
> sponsored by
> the Museum, the Lorentz code was a "Vernam cipher"
> keyed
> by a pseudo-random number generator. Some of the
> features
> that were put in to "make it look more random" in
> fact left
> "beacons" that aided the cryptanalysis. Think of
> this in terms
> of John Von Neumann's comment about a state of sin,
> and
> whenever you see modern crypto-snake-oil sold as a
> "virtual one-time pad".
> 
>   Mike
> 
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