[Cryptography] Cryptography topic for Research Paper

[Dave Horsfall]

On Thu, 8 May 2014, Tom Mitchell wrote:

> I might point you to history and the Enigma machine.
> 
>   http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enigma_machine

The OP could also mention how various crypto schemes have been broken 
(Enigma because an operator screwed up by re-using a key - always a 
no-no), such as the Japanese "Purple", wherein a water supply on a 
Japanese-held island was arranged to be bombed, and fair enough, the next 
message mentioned it, thereby confirming that the Allies had broken it 
(chosen plain-text, in a way).

Then there was the case where the operator, probably with bombs falling 
around his ears, accidentally sent the plaintext as well as the ciphertext 
- manna from heaven!  The Allies weren't interested in the message, but 
they derived the key for that day.  It was likely that a message said
something like "the next key is blah-blah"...

And although not technically crypto (but still related to secrecy), you 
could get bonus points for mentioning Mata Hari, probably the original 
honeypot...

And again not technically crypto but still secrecy-related, the ancient 
Greeks used to grab the nearest slave (plenty of them about), shave his 
head, and tattoo the meesage onto his scalp.  After the hair had grown 
back, he was sent on his way with an innocuous message.  Perfect security, 
if latency wasn't a problem...

> If you feel inventive explore the Rubic's Cube as an encryption device. 
> As a combinatorial tangle it has challenges especially if grown beyond 
> the basic 3x3 face of a cube and six colors. The puzzle has solutions 
> because the stickers are a known text. But what if the stickers were an 
> unknown text....alphabet?

Ah, the Cube...  There's a book on how to solve it, but I "solved" it 
merely by ripping it apart and re-assembling it.  I suppose it's a form of 
decryption, albeit by brute force :-)

-- Dave