Browse Items (30 total)

The Culper Code Book
The Culper Code Book was used during The American Revolutionary War in 1778 by George Washington's Culper Spy Ring. Developed by Ben Tallmadge, it consisted of 763 numerical codes to represent various words, names, and locations. This code book was…

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The Confederate Cipher Disk was used in The American Civil War by the Confederate Army. Created by Francis LaBarre and based on the Vigenère Cipher, it consisted of two brass discs with the alphabet on each. As a mechanical cipher tool, it allowed…

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The Giddings Field Message Book was used in 1898 during the Spanish-American War. Designed by Major Howard A. Giddings of the Brigadier Signal Officer Office of the Connecticut National Guard, it composed of a pocket pad with a built in US Army…

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The Enigma was an electromechanical cipher machine used by Germany in WWII. It came in the form of a typewriter and was adopted by the German Army, Air Force, and Navy to secure communications.

In 1939, Alan Turing broke the cipher and developed…

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PURPLE was a Japanese cipher machine used during WWII and based off the Enigma's rotor technology. While it was developed in 1937 with four rotors (compared to the Enigma's three), it was broken only a few years later in 1940 without being seen by…

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Fialka was known as a more complex version of the Enigma, created by Russian military for communicating within the Soviet Union and Warsaw pact in the 1960s- early 1970s. Compared to the Enigma's three rotors, Fialka had ten rotors- giving way to…

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The Zimmerman Telegram, sent from Germany to Mexico during WWI, was intercepted and decoded by the British early 1917. It took them approximately a month to send the decoded message to the U.S. British intelligence decoded the message in Room 40 of…

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The Vigenère cipher was created in the 16th-century by French cryptographer Blaise de Vigenère. It was revered as "le chiffre indéchiffrable" or "the unbreakable cipher" for many years after its invention.

It works by concealing the original…

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The Playfair Cipher was created in 1854 by Charles Wheatstone, and named after Lord Playfair for promoting its use. Initially, it was rejected by the British Foreign Office for appearing complicated. Later, the military began to use it for being…

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The Caesar Cipher is one of the oldest ciphers, used by Julius Caesar to communicate with his generals. It works by shifting the alphabet down by a fixed number, or key. Due to the simplicity, it can be broken if the crypanalyst knows that a simple…
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