Group items tagged

A look at some older cryptography used by the military and a look at what they are transitioning to

This is a cryptography blogger's translation of Kerckhoff's article about military cryptography. He denotes that secret methods of communication are limited to higher officers due to potential leakage; but by limiting cryptographic use, are they potentially putting at risk the safety of lesser positions in order to keep the secrecy of their cipher methods? Is this just the inevitable nature of cryptography in general?

Interesting article describing the people who worked at Bletchley Park (UK) during WWII and the secrecy act that kept them silent. The article makes compelling comparisons to people today like Edward Snowden, who are legally bound to secrecy but ignore it. What are the ethical implications of being asked to keep military secrets? Of sharing military secrets? How do the differences between today's generation and the WWII generation affect how these ethics are viewed?

This blog contains vast amounts of information dealing with military cryptography, both in the past and the present. One of the recent articles discussed the morality of utilizing military level cryptography to ensure complete surveillance of civilians, and whether or not it should be allowed.

Embeddable cryptographic processors are enabling a host of new defense communications applications, such as smartphones and tablet computers for tactical use on the front lines, but should soldiers be using the same object for both secure and insecure communications? Or does this create a conflict of interests?

This is an article about the advancement of technology and how it has affected cryptography and secret-keeping during wartime.

A pre-WWII NSA document on advanced military cryptography which was declassified in 2014. This leads to the question of what impact disclosing these military secrets has on encryption and decryption of messages in future wars, and also why were these documents released in the first place.

A description of the U.S. military's first cryptographic system.

This blog has information about military cryptography and privacy in general, including this post about the Zimmermann Telegram. Is it ethical to lie to an ally if it is in their best interest? What are the ethics behind spying on one's allies? Do ethics hinder one's ability to win a war, and if so, should ethics be disregarded in times of war? Another interesting post examines how Snowden should be viewed as a patriot, not a traitor. This made me question where one's loyalty should remain- to the government or to the people?

This makes me wonder how ethical it is for the NSA to be so heavily involved in cryptography internationally. Are they building a backdoor into these crytographic systems? If so, how ethical could that be?

This resource provides access to articles, news, and blog posts regarding military embedded systems, often using cryptography. One article referenced the cryptography used to secure "Data at Rest" and the length at which this information should be held secure. Is it ethical to keep this information from the public when safety is no longer a concern? At what point should these well-kept secrets become accessible?

Describes the personal relationship between President Abraham Lincoln and those who encoded military telegraph messages during the Civil War

Now that the NSA has declassified this information about cryptanalysis, either they can no longer utilize these methods of cryptography, or must do so with caution, knowing that anyone has the resources to crack them. Was it ethical of the NSA to release this information, especially if other countries still use these methods to create ciphers?

Continuation of a story I posted a while ago. Britain's top code-breakers say they are stumped by a secret code found on the leg of a dead pigeon. .

JN-25: code used during and slightly before world war II

The cipher described in this article was so secret that even President Lincoln "was denied access to the codes."