This Is London Summer 2019

28
Left: Enigma M1070 © The Board of Trustees of the Science Museum, GCHQ.
SCIENCE MUSEUM EXPLORES 100
YEARS OF CODEBREAKING
The Science Museum has launched a
major new exhibition, exploring
communications intelligence and cyber
security over the course of 100 years.
Top Secret: From Ciphers to Cyber
Security marks the centenary of GCHQ,
the UK’s Intelligence, Security and Cyber
agency which was first acknowledged in
law in 1994. Through never-before-seen
objects, interactive puzzles and firstperson
interviews, the exhibition
explores the challenges of maintaining
digital security in the 21st century and
the unique technologies used.
Amongst over 100 objects in the
exhibition that reveal fascinating stories of
communications intelligence and cyber
security from the last century are cipher
machines used during the Second World
War, secure telephones of the type used by
British Prime Ministers, and an encryption
key used by Her Majesty The Queen.
Sir Ian Blatchford, Director of the
Science Museum Group, said: ‘With the
help of GCHQ, our expert advisors on the
exhibition, we are privileged to reveal
some of the previously hidden histories
of the UK’s intelligence community. By
exhibiting over 100 remarkable objects,
we aim to engage visitors with the people
and technologies that keep us safe, at a
time when cyber security has never been
more important to people’s everyday lives.’
The exhibition also explores the work
of GCHQ’s National Cyber Security
Centre (NCSC) which works to defend
against cyberattacks. Visitors will be
able to see a computer infected with the
WannaCry ransomware which, in 2017,
affected thousands of people and
organisations including the NHS.
The exhibition includes the story of
the encryption technology used by the
Krogers who, until their arrest in the
1960s, were part of the most successful
Soviet spy ring in Cold War Britain.
Visitors will also be able to see the
remains of the crushed hard drive
alleged to contain top secret information
which was given by Edward Snowden to
The Guardian in 2013.
Exhibited for the first time in public is
the 5-UCO, one of the first electronic
and fully unbreakable cipher machines.
It was developed to handle the most
secret messages during the Second
World War, including sending Bletchley
Park’s decrypted Enigma messages to
the British military in the field and was
in use into the 1950s. This ultra-secret
machine was previously believed to have
been destroyed. Visitors to the exhibition
will also discover the story of the Lorenz
machine. Mistakes made by a German
radio operator while using a Lorenz
machine enabled workers at Bletchley
Park to break the Enigma code, bringing
the Allies one step closer to winning
the war.
Secure telephones that were at the
cutting-edge of innovation played a
crucial role for Britain during the Cold
War. The Pickwick telephone was
developed to keep transatlantic
communication secure between John F
Kennedy and Harold Macmillan during
the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962. By the
1980s secure telephone systems were
portable, and visitors will be able to see
Margaret Thatcher’s secure briefcase
telephone, which was used to
communicate the course of action to the
British Ministry of Defence during the
Falklands War in 1982.
Pickwick phone, 1960, used between
US President Kennedy and Harold
Macmillan during the Cuban Missle
Crisis © The Board of Trustees of the
Science Museum, GCHQ.
An interactive puzzle zone within the
exhibition gives visitors the opportunity
to test their own codebreaking skills and
explore first-hand the skills required to
succeed in the world of GCHQ.
The exhibition is supported by
Principal Funder DCMS, Principal
Sponsors Raytheon, Avast and DXC
Technology, Major Sponsor QinetiQ,
Associate Funder The Hintze Family
Charitable Foundation, and supported by
Keith Thrower, with special thanks to
Michael Spencer and NEX Group.
t h i s i s l o n d o n m a g a z i n e • t h i s i s l o n d o n o n l i n e