Any code breakers out there??

[Rusty]

I heard about this on the radio.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/ ... ipher.html

[JohndeFresno]

Interesting. No, can't break the code.
The bird was awarded a medal posthumously; I wonder if its next of kin will be notified?

[the telegraphist]

Having worked with these ciphers before and during the Cold War, the key is the DTG at the end of the messge.(Date time group) That will refer to a page in a cipher manual. Problem is which cipher manual, there were literally thousands of them. Message from XO2 thus somewhere that will relate to the particular cipher manual and encoding agreed between the parties. The relevant page if the correct cipher manual is found is inserted into a cipher machine from which the letters in the code groups are cross referenced to produce a plain english text. Without the correct manual and page it will take computers a day and an age to get there.

[2571]

Message reads:

URGENT

SEND TOILET PAPER
INDADVERTENTLY NOT PACKED WITH OTHER INVASION EQUIP
AMERICANS REFUSE TO LOAN ANY OF THEIRS

URGENT

[Ray Newman]

Probably from a drafted bookie placing bets for the races at Ascot....

[bdhold]

Be sure to drink your Ovaltine

[Grizz]

this appears to be along the lines of a one-time cipher. there would have been many different ones in use in the day.

what I take from this is the importance of being able to communicate secretly. especially now that nsa has an underground bunker with enough computer power to monitor every bit of electronic data in real time.

a one-time-code agreed upon offline cannot be broken by anybody except by torture. it can be sent in the clear digitally with no worries, except for the attention it draws. a simple letter is perhaps more secure unless you're already flagged for special interest at the post office.

a one-time cipher is more secure than any digital encryption that you can apply to your documents.

each cell could, over coffee say, set up comms for extreme need. and once the trusted group is established, admit no one else. that way someone may have access to someone else that they trust. 'cause the day is coming around the corner when . . . . . . . .

we don't have to be smarter than the cryptographers, we just need to use the simplest and oldest system, with perhaps an agreed way to permute it as time goes by, as another song says... .... ..

[Blaine]

Be sure to drink your Ovaltine

As they say, you owe me a keyboard

[Rusty]

Aw come on you mean none of you guys still have your little orphan Annie secret decoder ring?

[wecsoger]

Current consensus is it was a one-time pad code message so unless someone goes into an obscure warehouse somewhere, we will never know.

Shame too, it would have been interesting to know if the sender waited in vain for supplies, a reply, more troops or it was just a "weather is fine, wish you were here" message.

[Grizz]

Rusty

Thanks ever so much. How could I have forgotten the secret decoder ring?

Grizz

[Ray Newman]

"Be sure to drink your Ovaltine"
--Bulldog1935


Ovaltine! Now that's a product I have not heard of in more than a few years!


For those-not-in-the-know abouit Ovaltine:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ovaltine

[bdhold]

You're going to have to watch A Christmas Story now to decipher this thread.

[Blaine]

Christmas Story has evolved.....



No compass in the stock...the little dickens just shoots a Rag and takes his....

[bdhold]

A Christmas Story with zombies?

[Blaine]

A Christmas Story with zombies?

"Red Ryder" has a whole 'nother meaning these days

[scarville]

The telegraphist pretty much nailed it.

The structure -- five letter blocks -- indicates to me that it was encrypted using a prearranged and, probably, one time pad. The key might be derived from a page in a particular book selected based on the date of transmission. In some cases, the daily bridge hand in a particular newspaper supplied the key. I am not sure if any Allied WW2 codes used block chaining or not. I suspect not but if they did, that will make it even harder to crack.

Human beings are a remarkably clever species. Near as dammit "unbreakable" encryption is not a recent invention and this incident reminds us of that fact.

OTOH,. we can also be quite persistent. Here is as code that resisted cracking for 250 years:

http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2012/11 ... cript/all/

[Grizz]

Interesting. What is block chaining?

Are there computer solutions to one time pad codes? There are only 26 characters, and fewer if the nonessential ones are omitted. Could a brute strength approach work now?

thanks

Grizz