Group items tagged

In the war over encryption between the NSA and privacy activists, at first it seemed as though the activists had won - but now it's not so clear.

This was shared with the group! Did you do anything different this time? Your comment appeared twice, but that's fine.

I didn't do anything different! It must have appeared twice because I posted it twice.

"War is declared. Get prepared"

Discusses some interesting undercover cryptography work during the Cold War era

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 article describes how, during the Cold War, the major distributor of cryptography machines (Crypto AG) worked with the NSA. This professional relationship provided the NSA with shortcuts on how to break ciphers created from the different machines. Also, Crypto AG was revealed as not having given the most up to date models to all countries, probably through deception. This raises the question of morality involving basic warfare. How is it moral for this supposedly trusted third party company to have special allegiances with the United States?Would the United States have the same opinion on this actions morality if they were the ones being sold out of date equipment? Or if one of their opponents had shortcuts?

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

Gives you tools to make sure your information is safe.

One word of caution: This piece is from 2012, before we learned what the NSA was up to. It's quite possible that some of these mechanisms are now known to be insecure.

"The remains of a World War Two carrier pigeon which was lost in action 70 years ago while delivering a top secret message over enemy lines has been found in a chimney in Bletchingley, Surrey. The skeleton of the bird has a small red cylinder attached to its foot which contains a mysterious cigarette paper sized coded message. The message is deemed so sensitive, that Codebreakers at GCHQ in Cheltenham are now frantically trying to decipher it."

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."

I thought this article was very well written because at first it has a nice captivating introduction and title. The author goes on to explain the concepts in the most technical manner, but then he takes a step back and goes back to the reader's level in order to facilitate the reader's understanding if he or she does not have much knowledge on the topic. All in all, the article introduced a very interesting discovery about human evolution.

I thought this was a well written article because the author is informative without being too dry in her descriptions. Blogs do tend to be more conversational and this one is no exception. The academic focus on this relatively historic topic is still present, but the article is written for a wider audience than the academic community.

This is a website introducing codes and ciphers in WW II by Tony Sale. Given this specific war context, is there really a guideline of what an action is ethical and what is not in terms of cryptoanalysis? Would an action be ethical whenever the majority's well-being is satisfied, or there's a line that should not be crossed?

Cool story about female codebreaker during WWII. There is a new book out about her story.

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?