---------- Forwarded message ---------- Date: Sun, 10 Oct 2004 21:57:15 +0200 From: Christian Leber <christian@leber.de> To: full-disclosure@lists.netsys.com Subject: Re: [Full-Disclosure] WWII cryptography: the dark side On Sun, Oct 10, 2004 at 07:52:20PM +0200, Feher Tamas wrote:
(in german only or bablefish, sorry):
I bablefished it and corrected the worst errors: ------- Secret code TELWA cracked: Nazi decoder developed computer forerunner 23. September 2004 Hanover - the decoder Reinhold Weber decoded the US secret code TELWA in the Second World War and built a decoding machine to crack M-209-Nachrichten. This was now revealed by Klaus Schmeh, author at the InterNet magazine Telepolis That German decoding specialists decoded in the the Second World War secret code of the allied was even not well known by experts until a few years ago. According to report of the former president of the Federal Office for security in the information technology (BSI), Dr Otto Leiberichm the Germans in the Second World War cracked the US coding machine M-209. These remarks served the Telepolis author Klaus Schmeh as important source of information, when he worked on his book 'Die Welt der geheimen Zeichen - Die faszinierende Geschichte der Verschl|sselung' ('The world of the secret signs - the fascinating history of encryption). When he published excerpts of this book with Telepolis first, this led to a small sensation: A 84 year old man from Frankfurt contacted him and reported that he was in WWII involved in the crackong of the mentioned US coding machine M-209. The 1920 in Austria born Reinold Weber, which had spent six years of his childhood in the USA, was drawn in 1941 to the armed forces. Due to excellent knowledge of the english language he was first trained as a message interpreter and later as decoder. Inserted in the decoding unit FNAST5, he succeeded to decode the TELWA messages from US radiograms and decipher also machine keys. In this time Weber and his colleagues cracked the codes of the US coding machine M-209 and intercepted explosive information. Thus there were again and again hints referring to forthcoming bombardments of German cities, which were announced usually about six to eight weeks before execution in radiograms. What counter measures the German military did with the help of these information, weber however never experienced. In April 1944 Weber had the idea to build a machine which should automate a part of the laborious deciphering computations. The company Hollerith, late IBM, was positive in an evaluation, explained however the building of such a machine takes about two years. Thus Weber with a colleague made itself alone to the work. They created a machine, which consisted of two boxes: one in the size of a desk, which contained the relays and the four turning rollers, as well as a further box with 80 x 80 x 40 cm edge length. Latter box contained 26 times 16 bulb sockets, with which by bulbs the letters of the relative attitude could be copied. Thus Webers and his colleague wrote an interesting piece of technology history, because their construction had already many thing in common with a computer with their binary logic. The computer was still not at all invented at this time, if one refrains from the British machine Colossus likewise developed for decoding, which developed about at the same time. In the middle of September 1944 Weber could prove the strength of its computer forerunner for the first time: During a night duty he determined with his machine - without the support of his colleagues - an M209 key. Which would have meant one week work without machine assistance for a three-team at least, he created within approximately seven hours. At the beginning of of 1945, weber had landed over several detours in Salzburg, wanted to use his decoding machine again. However the necessary radio engineering was missing. The equipment proved as useless. Its superior instructed to destroy the machine. With pickel, hatchet, hammer and stahlsaege Weber scrapped thereupon the equipment, whose construction had employed him several months long. Thus a historically extremely interesting computer forerunner disappeared again from the scene. Until today this equipment in no source of literature is mentioned to computer history. ------- Here is the complete Telepolis article (german): http://www.heise.de/tp/deutsch/inhalt/co/18371/1.html Christian Leber -- "Omnis enim res, quae dando non deficit, dum habetur et non datur, nondum habetur, quomodo habenda est." (Aurelius Augustinus) Translation: <http://gnuhh.org/work/fsf-europe/augustinus.html> _______________________________________________ Full-Disclosure - We believe in it. Charter: http://lists.netsys.com/full-disclosure-charter.html