Cryptologic Bytes

A U.S. Coast Guard press release (7/7/2020) announced that their 11th Legend-Class National Security Cutter will be named in honor of Elizebeth Smith Friedman. Known for her pioneering work in codebreaking, especially during the Prohibition Era and World War II, Friedman is credited to have solved more than 12,000 messages from smugglers in hundreds of different code systems. Per the press release, her work led to hundreds of federal prosecutions and later to exposing German spies and breaking the German Enigma problem.

For the 75th Anniversary of #VEDay - GCHQ Historian Tony Comer tells the story of the final messages of a German communications network at the very end of the war in Europe.

In early April 2020, a fascinating discovery related to Bletchley Park was released to the public. The discovery? An 11-minute silent film features staff members of the MI6 Section VIII - the British spy agency's communications staff, at a site linked to Bletchley Park during World War II. Learn more in an article by Johnny Diaz for "The New York Times,"

NCMF President & CEO Laura Nelson participated as a guest speaker for a special webinar in April 2020 hosted by MD Senator Katie Fry Hester to raise awareness about Women in Cryptology and Cybersecurity.

As reported by Diana Stancy Correll for the Military Times, a group of U.S. Navy cryptologists is urging the U.S. Navy to name a destroyer after Senior Chief Cryptologic Technician (Interpretive) Shannon Kent, who was killed Jan. 16, 2019 in Syria.

On 16 October 2019, the Center for Cryptologic History (CCH) announced that Code Girls author, Ms. Liza Mundy, will be the NSA/CSS Scholar-in-Residence for 2019-2020. Ms. Mundy is no stranger to in-depth research. Her book Code Girls: The Untold Story of the American Women Code Breakers of World War II (published in 2017) reveals the major, untold story of 10,000 American women who decrypted signals intelligence during World War II.

A "fascinating" trip to the National Cryptologic Museum inspired writer & photographer Jason Bowling to pen a piece titled America’s Unbroken World War 2 Cipher Machine that explores how SIGABA’s encryption stayed secure as Enigma fell. Sigaba photo by Jason Bowling.

As author Dr. A. Ray Miller put it, this monograph "derives...the exact number of theoretical cyptographic key settings and machine configurations for the Enigma cipher machine. Click to learn more and to read the publication.

The NCMF's social media community responded to our request for book recommendations from their own cryptologic libraries. Check out their suggestions and see what you might add to your library. If you have books to add to the list, please email webadmin@cryptologicfoundation.org

Edward Rothstein of "The New York Times" provides a thorough review of the NSA's fascinating "public face," the National Cryptologic Museum.