CipherMachines-ColumbusStateUniversity.docVIP

Cipher Machines From Antiquity to the Enigma Machine Wayne Summers Department of Computer Science Columbus State University Columbus, Georgia, USA Abstract More and more people worldwide are using the Internet for personal transactions. Many are transmitting personal data including credit card and identification numbers. This requires that a secure connection be established. This secure connection provides a mechanism for transmitting personal data in encrypted form so that others can not “read” the information. Encryption or encoding the data is not a new concept. “History is punctuated with codes. They have decided the outcomes of battles and led to the deaths of kings and queens.” [Singh, pg. x] This paper traces the history of machines for encryption from the earliest known encryption or cipher machines to the Enigma machine used in the first half of the 20th century. Introduction to Cryptography and Encryption The word cryptography comes from the Greek words kryptos meaning hidden and grafi meaning writing and is the study of hiding written information through encoding or enciphering. Singh [Singh, xii] explains that a code is the replacing of a word or phrase with a word, number or symbol, while a cipher involves making letter-for-letter substitutions. Information can be hidden by either substituting other letters, words or symbols for the letters or words in the message or transposing the letters or words in the message. Many of the modern cryptographic algorithms use combinations of substitutions and transpositions. Cryptology is the overall study of codes and ciphers and cryptoanalysis is the science of the decryption of codes and ciphers. Encryption, or hiding the meaning of a message, appears to have begun in Egypt around 1900 BCE. The scribe for the Pharaoh Amenemhet II “used hieroglyphic substitutions to impart dignity and authority” to the inscriptions in the pyramids. [Higgs, pg. 3] From around 1500 BCE to 500 BCE, Assyrian and other cu