[Cryptography] RIP Claude Shannon, and the Zimmerman Telegram
Dave Horsfall
dave at horsfall.org
Fri Feb 23 16:50:14 EST 2018
We lost Claude Shannon on this day in 2001. He was a mathematician,
electrical engineer, and cryptographer; he is regarded as the "father" of
information theory, and he pioneered digital circuit design. Amongst
other things he built a barbed-wire telegraph, the "Ultimate Machine" (it
reached up and switched itself off), a Roman numeral computer ("THROBAC"),
the Minivac 601 (a digital trainer), a Rubik's Cube solver, a mechanical
mouse that learned how to solve mazes, and outlined a chess program. He
formulated the security mantra "The enemy knows the system", and did
top-secret work in WW-2 on crypto and fire-control systems.
And in 1917 the famous Zimmerman Telegram was presented to the US
Ambassador by the British Government, who promptly forwarded it to
President Woody. One decrypted message, and the rest is history...
--
Dave Horsfall DTM (VK2KFU) "Those who don't understand security will suffer."
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