The Geheimschreiber Secret - Swedish WWII SIGINT

[Travis H.]

http://frode.home.cern.ch/frode/ulfving/ulfving.html

This discusses Swedish decryption of a German crypto machine.
Although the break was done without any hints, it was a fairly
straightforward system of long-period XOR and fixed transposition, and
eventual success was predicated on the laziness of the operators (what
else is new?).  Perhaps someone can make this into some form of
game-theoretic research paper.

An interesting economic commentary, if somewhat off-topic, is:

``Many analysts consider that war preparations serve only as
instruments of pressure during negotiations. However, that ignore the
dynamics of future military developments which are created by a
deployment as large as that which occurred here. Economic factors and
military logistics make it almost impossible to keep large, inactive
troop concentrations in place as a trump card during long
negotiations, just as it is damaging for the units' fighting spirit.
It is too expensive not to use the troops, therefore they must either
be used in combat or be demobilized and returned to civilian life.
Only victory justifies the price -- even if it is high. For example,
consider the collapse of the economic, political and ecological
systems now affecting the states of the former Soviet Union as a
consequence, during a long period, of a highly forced ``war economy''
that did not result in any gains.''

Perhaps the "mission creep" seen in most large bureaucracies need not
always be attributed to power-grabs and personal aspirations of
department leaders, but to relatively benign economic arguments that
"we already pay for it, we might as well use it".  Along with the idea
that capabilities must periodically be exercised in order to prevent
atrophy, that probably explains a lot of otherwise puzzling decisions
and apparent over-reactions on the part of decision-makers.
-- 
Enhance your calm, fellow citizen; it's just ones and zeroes.
Unix "guru" for rent or hire -><- http://www.lightconsulting.com/~travis/
GPG fingerprint: 9D3F 395A DAC5 5CCC 9066  151D 0A6B 4098 0C55 1484

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