[Cryptography] Leo Marks' 1998 talk about WW2 SOE code-making and breaking

[John Levine]

It appears that Kent Borg <kentborg at borg.org> said:
W>> Hmmm, the problem: you are going to parachute into Denmark to teach 
>> some local agents how to do codes and operate wireless sets.

>> So how do you tell the agent what his secure and distress codes are?

My guess is that you arrive with some sealed numbered envelopes. When
you teach the agent the stuff, you give her the envelope which she
opens and reads out of your sight, memorizes the codes, then you watch
her burn the letter.

When you get home you can confirm which agents did that.

I am about halfway through reading Silk and Cyanide, and there is
vastly more than is in the talk. Some of it is quite amusing, e.g.,
when he asked a group of FANYs (young woman volunteers) to come up
with poems to use as cipher keys, they came up with some very
memorable ones riffing on parts of De Gaulle's anatomy.

R's,
John