Cryptanalysis, the science centered on deciphering secret messages without access to their encryption keys, has altered history‘s trajectory innumerable times. Since the 800s when the Arabic scholar Al-Kindi first described techniques for unraveling then dominant ciphers, cryptanalysis has continued nudging world events in new directions.
So much pivots on protecting prized communications as well as the efforts to peel away those protections. Between nations, factions and societies across time, the ability to conceal plans or intentions as desired has granted advantage. And uncovering an opponent‘s secrets against their will has pivoted balances of power definitively over and over.
Cryptology itself, the broad science encompassing cryptography and cryptanalysis alike, owes its rapid maturation largely to an intricate dance between code makers and code breakers over centuries…
Cryptanalysis Defined as The "Other" Cryptology Science
Before diving deeper into cryptanalysis, let‘s formally define this often less famous sibling science of cryptography:
Cryptanalysis focuses specifically on studying encryption schemes with the aim to understand precisely how they work. The motivating goal is to uncover flaws or patterns that could allow cracking codes without access to their secret keys or parameters.
Cryptography encompasses constructing new codes and ciphers as well as encrypting plaintext messages into seemingly random ciphertext via algorithms keyed by secret passwords or numerical keys. Cryptography asks – how can we hide a message‘s true contents to secure it?
Cryptanalysis examines these same cryptographic mechanisms later and asks the opposite – How might we reveal the hidden contents being concealed, without authorization of the keys or knowledge of procedures used?
Together cryptography and cryptanalysis form the broader umbrella field of cryptology.
Now let‘s traverse a concise timeline highlighting crucial milestones in cryptanalysis, some which etched chapters in human history…
800s – Earliest Known Cryptanalysis Achieved
Emerging from relative obscurity in modern times, the Arabic polymath Al-Kindi brought revolutionary cryptanalysis insights in the 9th century.
Within treatises like his manuscript Risalah fi Istikhraj al-Mu‘amma (On Decrypting Cryptographic Messages), Al-Kindi documented utilizing frequency analysis against common monoalphabetic substitution ciphers. These encrypted messages by simply shifting the alphabet – A to K, B to L across a plaintext.
Al-Kindi‘s key realization? Letter frequencies remain largely consistent across languages. Arabic‘s most common letter م mim mirrors English‘s E. So analyzing ciphertext letter frequenciesreveals likely substitutions – such as K‘s prevalence signaling it replaced E.
This discovery marked one of humanity‘s earliest cryptanalyses formally recorded. While simple compared to modern ciphers, it cracked substitutions for centuries after and established frequency analysis forever within the cryptanalyst‘s toolkit.
1900 – Enigma‘s "Unbreakable" Rotor Ciphers Emerge
By the early 20th century, cryptography matured substantially from basic alphabet shifts of Julius Caesar‘s age into far more intricate mechanized systems. Incorporating rotors, reflected bits, plugboards and more, electromechanical encryption like the German Enigma appeared nigh impenetrable when properly used.
Enigma encrypted messages via an ingenious series of steps powered by three rotors stepping in synch. Germany distributed Enigma machines to military units widely, believing its ciphers perfectly secure. Their confidence proved so high that encrypted Enigma traffic contained no further outer encryption layer.
That confidence also sowed the seeds of Enigma‘s eventual cryptanalysis.
1930s – Poland Cracks Early Enigma Models
As Nazi Germany accelerated militarization in the 1930s, Poland‘s Cipher Bureau began covertly intercepting early Enigma traffic. Mathematicians like Marian Rejewski combined bold statistics and math attacks to crack secrets of the Enigma rotor wiring itself.
This initial cryptanalysis pierced Enigma despite lacking key setup knowledge, but did rely on quirky procedural flaws like message precedents. Germany‘s subsequent Enigma bolstering closed this first vulnerability but crucially, Rejewski and Poland shared their unraveling with French and British allies.
That head start soon fueled Alan Turing‘s own Enigma cryptanalysis ending the supposedly "unbreakable" cipher for good.
1940s WWII – Bletchley Park Shatters Enigma for Allies
With Poland overrun, the baton soon passed to British cryptanalysts including Alan Turing stationed at Bletchley Park. Through 1940, Turing and others expanded on Rejewski‘s prewar findings using math intuition and early computing "Bombes" to deduce Enigma rotor settings daily.
Britain staffed an ever-growing Bletchley Park facility entirely devoted to cryptanalyzing Axis communications. Their breakthroughs offered crucial intelligence, shaping WWII battle outcomes while shortening the war‘s duration by an estimated 2 years.
Intercepted signals often revealed targets minutes before attacks. Ultra intelligence from cracked Tunny system traffic exposed German supply issues and troop movements. Significant deception operations cloaked where decrypted intel originated to hide that Enigma was broken. Such insight granted operational advantage tipping key battles for Allies when leveraged properly.
Statisticians gauged that actionable intel from Bletchley Park cryptanalysis likely saved between 14 and 21 million lives. Some historians suggest WWII may have ended in bloody gridlock without it.
| Bletchley Park Staff | ~200 1939 | ~8,795 1945 |
| Cracked Enigma Messages | 20,000 | Over 50 million |
Momentum towards programmable computing also crystallized from necessity at Bletchley Park. Bombes and Colossus number-crunchers provided automation desperately needed for cryptanalyzing unprecedented volumes of Nazi cipher traffic.
Post-WWII – Cryptanalysis Births Modern Computing
Military computing prototyped for cryptanalysis birthed general computing as we know it today. Mathematical logic honed breaking Enigma and Fish sunk roots for programmable systems. US Navy engineer Grace Hopper led development of early compilers partially inspired by notation from cryptographic research.
Inexpensive integrated circuits then amplified computing‘s catalyst role first embodied in Bletchley Park‘s custom analyzer machines. Within decades, silicon transistor pathways would transmit information at near light speed. Yet the functions enacted trace back to evolution crystallizing around cryptanalysis during humanity‘s darkest hours.
1990s – Cryptanalysis Unlocks DES for Good
As computing transformed society and commerce, encryption schemes hardened specifically against electronic cryptanalysis. The Data Encryption Standard (DES) approved for widespread financial use in 1976 aimed to resist brute computation attacks. Using 56-bit keys conferring 72 quadrillion combinations secure for decades.
Or so it seemed.
In less than 25 years computing scaled enough for a purpose-built "Deep Crack" DES cryptanalysis machine to burst DES completely in 1998. Brute forcing 90 billion keys per second uncovered a 56-bit DES key in just 3 days. Well within reach for motivated attackers by then.
DES‘s fall highlighted the fleeting security margins afforded by any static encryption scheme in computing‘s burgeoning age. Today‘s widely employed successors like AES require 128, 192 or even 256-bit minimum keys, aiming to stay far enough ahead of the cryptanalysis curve.
For how long remains uncertain.
Cryptanalysis Continues Reshaping History
While but a concise sampling, these waypoints trace cryptanalysis‘ pivotal role challenging and spurring cryptography itself forward since societies began concealing their most valued communications and plans.
Codebreaking has remained crucial for balancing unchecked secrecy‘s dangers when employed ethically. But also merciless when subverting just authority, social contracts or norms for ill. Much of societies‘ development straddles these poles across generations.
And cryptology‘s intricate dance shall continue playing out between progressing cryptographic security and persistent cryptanalytic inquisition. Today hacking encryption appears harmonic with exponential technological change itself. New computing mediums rewrite rules regularly, but the age-old tension between hiding secrets and revealing the hidden unlikely fades from human affairs.
Both cryptanalysis and cryptography seem destined to continue juxtaposing society‘s checks and balances against threats both external and self-manifested as long as codes fuel civilization‘s ascent.
I hope this guided tour from early Arab scholar insights through to modern computing brute forcing offered an appreciation for cryptanalysis‘ crucial role throughout history! Please reach out with any thoughts or questions.
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