[Discuss] Enigma - Cryptoy

[John Blomfield]

In the good old days when VLUG actually held physical meetings once a 
month I gave a little talk based upon the the excellent book "The Code 
Book" by Simon Singh that reviewed the history of cryptography from its 
early beginnings to present day Internet methods such as the 
Diffie-Hellmann-Merkle exchange and PGP. I hasten to add I am not a 
cryptographer by any stretch of the imagination but only an interested 
engineer. However, for those that may also be interested in these things 
GCHQ (The British Government "secret" Communication agency) has 
published an Android app called "Cryptoy" (on Google Play) to encourage 
children to become interested in the mathematics of cryptography and 
code breaking. Cryptoy provides interactive examples of the shift, 
substitution, Vigenere Square and Enigma codes and mathematical 
explanations of how they work.

This is opportune as the movie "Imagination Game" has recently been 
released covering the life of one of the Enigma breakers at GCHQ (During 
WWII then at Bletchley Park)  Alan Turing. Incidentally, Diffie-Hellmann 
was independently discovered at GCHQ but was classified until well after 
Diffie-Hellmann was published.

John

-- 
John Blomfield
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Old John B's Linux Notes http://www.oldjohnbslinux.wordpress.com