AMATEUR BREAKS NAZI CODE 63 YEARS TOO LATE
AMATEUR BREAKS NAZI CODE 63 YEARS TOO LATE
This week’s BPO GEEK OF THE WEEK award goes to Stefan Krah, a violinist and amateur cryptographer, who broke an encrypted Nazi code that had puzzled cryptographers for 63 years. He wrote a code busting computer program that could run on multiple computers simultaneously, each scrambling various letter combinations until a legible configuration could be found. Over 2500 computers had been running the program since January.
In its encrypted form, the message appeared as follows:
NCZW VUSX PNYM INHZ XMQX SFWX WLKJ AHSH NMCO CCAK UQPM KCSM HKSE INJU SBLK IOSX CKUB HMLL XCSJ USRR DVKO HULX WCCB GVLI YXEO AHXR HKKF VDRE WEZL XOBA FGYU JQUK GRTV UKAM EURB VEKS UHHV OYHA BCJW MAKL FKLM YFVN RIZR VVRT KOFD ANJM OLBG FFLE OPRG TFLV RHOW OPBE KVWM UQFM PWPA RMFH AGKX IIBG
The message Krah came up with, sent on November 25, 1942 and verified using records from Hartwig Looks, commander of the German submarine U264, which was later sunk in the North Atlantic in February 1944 is this:
“Forced to submerge during attack. Depth charges. Last enemy position 0830h AJ 9863, [course] 220 degrees, [speed] 8 knots. [I am] following [the enemy]. [Barometer] falls 14 mb, [wind] nor-nor-east, [force] 4, visibility 10 [nautical miles].”
Useful.
Two codes remain to be broken, and you can get the software to help break them here:
www.bytereef.org/m4_project.html
The protection of our nation from the sinister Nazi threat may depend on it.
