[Cryptography] Crypto quarantining movies

[Henry Baker]

"Dr. Strangelove":

Brute-force search of 3-letter codes ("permutation" is used incorrectly in the movie).

Correct code ("OPE") would be found after 56% of the 17,576 3-letter codes had been tried.

Trivia: 7090 computer with 1401 I/O computer attached is featured prominently.

Curiously, a transistor radio is used in the computer room; just recently on crypto we discussed transistor radios as side-channels for 1960's computer equipment.

The opening sequence of in-flight refueling is Kubrick's aviation update to Hitchcock's train-going-into-a-tunnel trope from 'North by Northwest'.

"Address Unknown":

When sending or *receiving* encrypted messages is a capital crime, one can commit remote murder by merely sending an encrypted message whose contents are irrelevant/meaningless; the Nazis also believed in "we kill people based on metadata".