Comment This article is typical mass-media slop (Score 2) 139
A few bits of truth floating in a frothing stew of errors.
As noted elsewhere, COLOSSUS was not used to break Enigma; it was designed to break the cipher of the Lorenz machine (Geheimschreiber). If the Allies had needed COLOSSUS to break Enigma, the war would have been much longer and bloodier. COLOSSUS was not even operational until February 1944. The Allies had re-broken Enigma in early 1940, by hand methods. They read the main Luftwaffe key (RED) from then until the end of the war. They read the main navy key (HYDRA) from mid-1941 on. In 1942, the Germans adopted a special high-quality key for U-boats only (TRITON) which was not broken for 10 months (during which the Battle of the Atlantic was nearly lost). TRITON was finally broken by Turing himself.
Use of the Enigma machine did not "spread through the German military". Enigma was adopted as the standard cipher machine for all branches of the German armed forces by 1929.
The "Turing Machine" was not "one of the earliest modern computers", it is a theoretical model of a computing device.
The Germans did not "[strengthen] their system by changing the cipher every day.” They had more than one "cipher" - more precisely, each branch or sub-branch of service had its own daily settings for the Enigma (its "key"). There were about 50 Enigma keys in use by the end of the war.
ULTRA was the code term for any intelligence from decrypted enemy signals. Enigma signals were not decrypted with COLOSSUS - nor with the electromechanical "bombes" used to crack Enigma. The function of the bombes was to find the settings for a key. The key-finding process tested settings against a "crib": ciphertext for which the cleartext was known or guessable. The testing went on until a setting produced the expected cleartext. Then all messages on that key could be decoded using a copy of the Enigma.
The article is a muddled retelling of stuff that has been known for many years. As others have written, it's not fit for SlashDot.
As noted elsewhere, COLOSSUS was not used to break Enigma; it was designed to break the cipher of the Lorenz machine (Geheimschreiber). If the Allies had needed COLOSSUS to break Enigma, the war would have been much longer and bloodier. COLOSSUS was not even operational until February 1944. The Allies had re-broken Enigma in early 1940, by hand methods. They read the main Luftwaffe key (RED) from then until the end of the war. They read the main navy key (HYDRA) from mid-1941 on. In 1942, the Germans adopted a special high-quality key for U-boats only (TRITON) which was not broken for 10 months (during which the Battle of the Atlantic was nearly lost). TRITON was finally broken by Turing himself.
Use of the Enigma machine did not "spread through the German military". Enigma was adopted as the standard cipher machine for all branches of the German armed forces by 1929.
The "Turing Machine" was not "one of the earliest modern computers", it is a theoretical model of a computing device.
The Germans did not "[strengthen] their system by changing the cipher every day.” They had more than one "cipher" - more precisely, each branch or sub-branch of service had its own daily settings for the Enigma (its "key"). There were about 50 Enigma keys in use by the end of the war.
ULTRA was the code term for any intelligence from decrypted enemy signals. Enigma signals were not decrypted with COLOSSUS - nor with the electromechanical "bombes" used to crack Enigma. The function of the bombes was to find the settings for a key. The key-finding process tested settings against a "crib": ciphertext for which the cleartext was known or guessable. The testing went on until a setting produced the expected cleartext. Then all messages on that key could be decoded using a copy of the Enigma.
The article is a muddled retelling of stuff that has been known for many years. As others have written, it's not fit for SlashDot.
