[Cryptography] Code Breakers by Craig Collie

[grarpamp]

On Thu, Aug 10, 2017 at 10:24 PM, Bill Frantz <frantz at pwpconsult.com> wrote:
> I found an interesting book in a Sydney, Australia airport book stall:
>
> Code Breakers
> Inside the shadow world of signals intelligence in Australia's two Bletchley
> Parks
> Craig Collie
> First published in 2017 by:
> Allen & Unwin
> 83 Alexander Street
> Crows Nest, NSW 2065
> Australia
> <www.allenandunwin.com>
> ISBN 978 1 74331 210 0
>
> This book describes the signals intelligence efforts in Australia during
> WWII. It goes into detail about the politics, personalities, code breaking,
> and traffic analysis used in some of the epic battles in the south Pacific.
> It describes the early use of IBM tabulating equipment in code breaking. It
> gives enough detail about the structure of the Japanese codes so the reader
> can appreciate the effort needed to break them and re-break them after they
> were changed.
>
> A brief description of the typical code structure: First the messages was
> converted to numbers using a code book which took words or phrases as input.
> Then "additive tables" were used like a one time pad to scramble the output
> of the code book for transmission. Since the additive tables were reused
> many times, there were obvious security issues, although these issues don't
> seem to have been the major way the codes were actually broken.
>
> Traffic analysis based on the strength and direction of radio signals
> allowed prediction of air attacks without being able to read the messages,
> although since the airplane codes were designed for easy use in the air,
> they were relatively easy to break.
>
> The book is also a fun read. Recommended.
>
> Cheers - Bill

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