Code and ciphers: Julius Caesar, the Enigma and the internet
Code and ciphers: Julius Caesar, the Enigma and the internet
Code and ciphers: Julius Caesar, the Enigma and the internet
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10<br />
The Hagelin cipher machine<br />
Historical background<br />
It might be thought, quite reasonably, that any country would try to keep<br />
secret <strong>the</strong> identity of its cipher machines <strong>and</strong> this is, in general, true. If <strong>the</strong><br />
cipher machines were designed <strong>and</strong> built in <strong>the</strong> country concerned, as was<br />
<strong>the</strong> case with <strong>the</strong> <strong>Enigma</strong> in Germany, keeping <strong>the</strong>ir identity <strong>and</strong> details<br />
secret would be feasible, but if a machine was purchased from elsewhere it<br />
would be almost inevitable that o<strong>the</strong>rs would eventually know about it.<br />
Under <strong>the</strong>se circumstances it may seem surprising that before <strong>and</strong> during<br />
World War II <strong>the</strong>re was a cipher machine that was used by several countries<br />
on both sides, including Germany, Italy, <strong>the</strong> UK, <strong>the</strong> USA <strong>and</strong> France.<br />
This machine was made in Sweden, a neutral country, by <strong>the</strong> firm of Boris<br />
Hagelin <strong>and</strong> was sold to anyone who wanted it. It was known by a variety<br />
of names in <strong>the</strong>se various countries (Hagelin, M209, C36, C38, C41,...)<br />
but, with some variation, was essentially <strong>the</strong> same machine in all cases.<br />
The basic function of <strong>the</strong> Hagelin machine was <strong>the</strong> provision of a long<br />
sequence of ‘pseudo-r<strong>and</strong>om’ numbers that were used as a key stream for<br />
<strong>the</strong> encipherment of plaintext by means of <strong>the</strong> equation<br />
(cipher letter)�key�(plaintext letter) (mod 26). (10.1)<br />
So, for example, if <strong>the</strong> plaintext letter was F (numerical equivalent�5)<br />
<strong>and</strong> <strong>the</strong> key was 18 <strong>the</strong> cipher letter would be N since<br />
18�5�13 (<strong>the</strong> numerical equivalent of N).<br />
Note that equation (10.1) can be reversed, i.e.<br />
(plaintext letter)�key�(cipher letter) (mod 26), (10.2)<br />
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