Questions On Alan Turing: Breaking The Enigma Code
Alan Turing: Breaking the Enigma Code Steven Go
Professor Tobie Tondi
Religious Questions of the Holocaust
THRS 390 – 01
February 17, 2015
YZDS EHVSQM means nothing, and remains useless, unless one is given the correct code to decrypt the secret message. Perhaps it means “Stop Please” or “Heil Hitler” as the German Nazi’s would always end their secret message when relaying them during World War II. Germans utilized the Enigma machine to scramble and encipher hidden messages to relay the location or positions of where their troops were, and plan their next attack. Through the help of Alan Turing, highly regarded as the father of theoretical computer science and artificial intelligence, he successfully decrypted the Enigma code. Through decrypting each message the Germans sent, he and his colleagues saved millions of lives, and historians estimate that he shortened the war by as many as two to four years. His life story has laid the foundations for the modern computer age which continues to play a central role in today’s life.
1) Who is Alan Turing and what is the Enigma code?
Alan Turing was a brilliant mathematician, cryptographer and a pioneer of computer science. It has been …show more content…
over a century since he was born in Maida Vale, London on June 23rd, 1912. Today, Turing may best be known for his work at the Government Code and Cypher school at Bletchley Park during World War II, and his significant role in breaking the Enigma code. The Enigma machine is a piece of hardware invented by the German engineer, Arthur Scherbius, at the end of World War I. The Enigma allowed an operator to type in a message, then scramble it by using three to five notched wheels, or rotors, which displayed different letters of the alphabet. Each rotor was then placed in the machine, and as each letter was pressed, it would move. The receiver needed to know the exact settings of these rotors in order to decode the text.
Over the years the basic machine became more complicated as German code experts added plugs with electronic circuits. The plugboard would switch each letter with a different letter, creating 10 pairs, while 6 letters were left untouched. This added another layer of complexity as it significantly increased the difficulty of deciphering the messages. If the initial settings of the rotors and plug board are not known, there are over billions of possibilities. Each month had its own settings, printed on code sheets in soluble ink that easily dissolved in water. If the Allied codebreakers deciphered the settings, their decryption would be useless weeks later.
Mathematical representation of how many possibilities there are for the Enigma machine:
Rotors:
Starting:
Plugboard:
Total: 2) How did he break the Enigma Code?
Polish cryptographers had invented techniques and machines known as “bombes,” which automate the search for initial settings but these proved to be inadequate as the Germans increased the complexity of the Enigma machine. Turing’s great contribution to breaking Enigma was the design of an improved “bombe” to search for the daily Enigma settings. Unlike the mechanical Polish bombe, the Turing-Welchman bombe, developed by Turing and Gordon Welchman, was electro-mechanical and far faster and more efficient. With many improvements in design and speed, they were able to reduce the time to decrypt Enigma messages to hours instead of days or weeks making Enigma decrypts extremely more valuable.
One of the major flaws of the Enigma machine was that a letter, could not represent itself, therefore reducing the amount of possibilities significantly. Turing and his colleagues exploited this flaw, as they developed their own version of the Bombe machine which allowed them to break any version of the Enigma code in under 20 minutes since it bypassed most the tedious guesswork and trial and error involved in earlier by-hand methods. The Bombe machine was able to compute each single combination and figure out the correct code through the process of elimination. It would create an assumption and follow it through until it ran into a contradiction, and at that point each subsequent assumption leading to the contradiction can be eliminated. It would continue this process until it found the correct code, in which Turing would check by hand and decrypt the messages sent by the Germans.
3) How different would the world be today if Turing had not broken the Enigma Code?
If Turing and his fellow codebreakers did not break the Enigma code, historians estimate that they had shortened the war by as many as two to four years.
If Turing and his group had not weakened the U-boats hold on the North Atlantic, the 1944 Allied invasion of Europe, D-Day landings, could have been delayed, perhaps by a year or even longer. The North Atlantic played a significant role as this was the route that ammunition, fuel, food and troops had to travel in order to reach Britain from America. Historians note that any delay in timing of the invasion, could have put Hitler in a stronger position to withstand the Allied assault. It is estimated that Turing had saved around 14 to 21 million people, as each year during the war had seven million
deaths.
After the war, he worked at the National Physical Laboratory, where he designed the ACE, among the first designs for a stored program computer. In 1952, Turing was prosecuted for homosexual acts, when such behavior was still criminalized in the United Kingdom. He accepted treatment with oestrogen injections or chemical castration as an alternative to prison. He died in 1954, at the age of 41, from committing suicide through cyanide poisoning. In 2009, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown made an official public apology on behalf of the British government for the appalling way he was treated. Queen Elizabeth II had also granted him a posthumous pardon in 2013.
Alan Turing remains one of the greatest minds of the 20th century has he introduced two key concepts: “algorithms” and “computing machines” which continue to play a vital role in today’s society. Through his work during WWII he has been able to save millions of lives while giving laying the foundation of computer science. His ingenuity and passion in this work has brought inspiration in both science and engineering and will continue to live on. People across the world have funded and collaborated with the London Science Museum to put together a stunning exhibition in honor of Turing, celebrating his life and legacy. IGT BNW when decrypted means “The End.”
Bibliography
Alan Turing. Bio. A&E Television Networks, 2015. Web. 04 Feb. 2015.
"Alan Turing: The Father of Modern Computer Science." Alan Turing: The Father of Modern
Computer Science. Web. 17 Feb. 2015. <http://www.cctvcamerapros.com/Alan-Turing-Computer-Science-s/369.htm>.
BBC News. BBC. Web. 5 Feb. 2015. <http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/people/alan_turing>.
"Celebrating Alan Turing 's Genius." BBC News. Web. 17 Feb. 2015.
<http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-17662585>.
Cooper, S. B., and J. Van Leeuwen. Alan Turing: His Work and Impact. Waltham, MA: Elsevier,
2013. Print.
"Enigma Machine." Enigma Machine. Web. 17 Feb. 2015.
<http://www.2worldwar2.com/enigma.htm>.
Grime, James. "What Did Turing Do for Us?" : Nrich.maths.org. Web. 17 Feb. 2015.
<http://nrich.maths.org/8050>.
Hodges, Andrew. Alan Turing: The Enigma. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1983. Print.
Holt, Jim. "Code-Breaker." Web. 5 Feb. 2015.
<http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2006/02/06/code-breaker>.
"Quora." How Did Alan Turing Figure Out the Enigma Machine? -. Web. 17 Feb. 2015.
<http://www.quora.com/How-did-Alan-Turing-figure-out-the-Enigma-machine>.
"The Enigma Machine: How Alan Turing Helped Break the Unbreakable Nazi Code." Open Culture.
Web. 17 Feb. 2015. "The Imitation Game: Who Were the Real Bletchley Park Codebreakers?" The Telegraph.
Telegraph Media Group. Web. 5 Feb. 2015. <http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/film/film-news/11229240/The-Imitation-Game-who-were-the-real-Bletchley-Park-codebreakers.html>.
Turing, Alan Mathison, and B. Jack Copeland. The Essential Turing Seminal Writings in
Computing, Logic, Philosophy, Artificial Intelligence, and Artificial Life, plus the Secrets of Enigma. Oxford: Clarendon ;, 2004. Print.
Turing, Sara. Alan M. Turing. Centenary Ed., 1. Paperback ed. Cambridge [u.a.: Cambridge U,
2015. Print.
Professor Tobie Tondi
Religious Questions of the Holocaust
THRS 390 – 01
February 17, 2015
YZDS EHVSQM means nothing, and remains useless, unless one is given the correct code to decrypt the secret message. Perhaps it means “Stop Please” or “Heil Hitler” as the German Nazi’s would always end their secret message when relaying them during World War II. Germans utilized the Enigma machine to scramble and encipher hidden messages to relay the location or positions of where their troops were, and plan their next attack. Through the help of Alan Turing, highly regarded as the father of theoretical computer science and artificial intelligence, he successfully decrypted the Enigma code. Through decrypting each message the Germans sent, he and his colleagues saved millions of lives, and historians estimate that he shortened the war by as many as two to four years. His life story has laid the foundations for the modern computer age which continues to play a central role in today’s life.
1) Who is Alan Turing and what is the Enigma code?
Alan Turing was a brilliant mathematician, cryptographer and a pioneer of computer science. It has been …show more content…
over a century since he was born in Maida Vale, London on June 23rd, 1912. Today, Turing may best be known for his work at the Government Code and Cypher school at Bletchley Park during World War II, and his significant role in breaking the Enigma code. The Enigma machine is a piece of hardware invented by the German engineer, Arthur Scherbius, at the end of World War I. The Enigma allowed an operator to type in a message, then scramble it by using three to five notched wheels, or rotors, which displayed different letters of the alphabet. Each rotor was then placed in the machine, and as each letter was pressed, it would move. The receiver needed to know the exact settings of these rotors in order to decode the text.
Over the years the basic machine became more complicated as German code experts added plugs with electronic circuits. The plugboard would switch each letter with a different letter, creating 10 pairs, while 6 letters were left untouched. This added another layer of complexity as it significantly increased the difficulty of deciphering the messages. If the initial settings of the rotors and plug board are not known, there are over billions of possibilities. Each month had its own settings, printed on code sheets in soluble ink that easily dissolved in water. If the Allied codebreakers deciphered the settings, their decryption would be useless weeks later.
Mathematical representation of how many possibilities there are for the Enigma machine:
Rotors:
Starting:
Plugboard:
Total: 2) How did he break the Enigma Code?
Polish cryptographers had invented techniques and machines known as “bombes,” which automate the search for initial settings but these proved to be inadequate as the Germans increased the complexity of the Enigma machine. Turing’s great contribution to breaking Enigma was the design of an improved “bombe” to search for the daily Enigma settings. Unlike the mechanical Polish bombe, the Turing-Welchman bombe, developed by Turing and Gordon Welchman, was electro-mechanical and far faster and more efficient. With many improvements in design and speed, they were able to reduce the time to decrypt Enigma messages to hours instead of days or weeks making Enigma decrypts extremely more valuable.
One of the major flaws of the Enigma machine was that a letter, could not represent itself, therefore reducing the amount of possibilities significantly. Turing and his colleagues exploited this flaw, as they developed their own version of the Bombe machine which allowed them to break any version of the Enigma code in under 20 minutes since it bypassed most the tedious guesswork and trial and error involved in earlier by-hand methods. The Bombe machine was able to compute each single combination and figure out the correct code through the process of elimination. It would create an assumption and follow it through until it ran into a contradiction, and at that point each subsequent assumption leading to the contradiction can be eliminated. It would continue this process until it found the correct code, in which Turing would check by hand and decrypt the messages sent by the Germans.
3) How different would the world be today if Turing had not broken the Enigma Code?
If Turing and his fellow codebreakers did not break the Enigma code, historians estimate that they had shortened the war by as many as two to four years.
If Turing and his group had not weakened the U-boats hold on the North Atlantic, the 1944 Allied invasion of Europe, D-Day landings, could have been delayed, perhaps by a year or even longer. The North Atlantic played a significant role as this was the route that ammunition, fuel, food and troops had to travel in order to reach Britain from America. Historians note that any delay in timing of the invasion, could have put Hitler in a stronger position to withstand the Allied assault. It is estimated that Turing had saved around 14 to 21 million people, as each year during the war had seven million
deaths.
After the war, he worked at the National Physical Laboratory, where he designed the ACE, among the first designs for a stored program computer. In 1952, Turing was prosecuted for homosexual acts, when such behavior was still criminalized in the United Kingdom. He accepted treatment with oestrogen injections or chemical castration as an alternative to prison. He died in 1954, at the age of 41, from committing suicide through cyanide poisoning. In 2009, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown made an official public apology on behalf of the British government for the appalling way he was treated. Queen Elizabeth II had also granted him a posthumous pardon in 2013.
Alan Turing remains one of the greatest minds of the 20th century has he introduced two key concepts: “algorithms” and “computing machines” which continue to play a vital role in today’s society. Through his work during WWII he has been able to save millions of lives while giving laying the foundation of computer science. His ingenuity and passion in this work has brought inspiration in both science and engineering and will continue to live on. People across the world have funded and collaborated with the London Science Museum to put together a stunning exhibition in honor of Turing, celebrating his life and legacy. IGT BNW when decrypted means “The End.”
Bibliography
Alan Turing. Bio. A&E Television Networks, 2015. Web. 04 Feb. 2015.
"Alan Turing: The Father of Modern Computer Science." Alan Turing: The Father of Modern
Computer Science. Web. 17 Feb. 2015. <http://www.cctvcamerapros.com/Alan-Turing-Computer-Science-s/369.htm>.
BBC News. BBC. Web. 5 Feb. 2015. <http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/people/alan_turing>.
"Celebrating Alan Turing 's Genius." BBC News. Web. 17 Feb. 2015.
<http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-17662585>.
Cooper, S. B., and J. Van Leeuwen. Alan Turing: His Work and Impact. Waltham, MA: Elsevier,
2013. Print.
"Enigma Machine." Enigma Machine. Web. 17 Feb. 2015.
<http://www.2worldwar2.com/enigma.htm>.
Grime, James. "What Did Turing Do for Us?" : Nrich.maths.org. Web. 17 Feb. 2015.
<http://nrich.maths.org/8050>.
Hodges, Andrew. Alan Turing: The Enigma. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1983. Print.
Holt, Jim. "Code-Breaker." Web. 5 Feb. 2015.
<http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2006/02/06/code-breaker>.
"Quora." How Did Alan Turing Figure Out the Enigma Machine? -. Web. 17 Feb. 2015.
<http://www.quora.com/How-did-Alan-Turing-figure-out-the-Enigma-machine>.
"The Enigma Machine: How Alan Turing Helped Break the Unbreakable Nazi Code." Open Culture.
Web. 17 Feb. 2015. "The Imitation Game: Who Were the Real Bletchley Park Codebreakers?" The Telegraph.
Telegraph Media Group. Web. 5 Feb. 2015. <http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/film/film-news/11229240/The-Imitation-Game-who-were-the-real-Bletchley-Park-codebreakers.html>.
Turing, Alan Mathison, and B. Jack Copeland. The Essential Turing Seminal Writings in
Computing, Logic, Philosophy, Artificial Intelligence, and Artificial Life, plus the Secrets of Enigma. Oxford: Clarendon ;, 2004. Print.
Turing, Sara. Alan M. Turing. Centenary Ed., 1. Paperback ed. Cambridge [u.a.: Cambridge U,
2015. Print.