back to article Crack Bombe squad dismantles Reg encryption in an hour

Crack codebreakers from the Bombe squad took just over an hour to decipher a Reg message encoded on an Enigma machine yesterday. The rather unimaginative text, "Reg readers say hi" (sorry, your hack was put on the spot) was sent via Twitter from the Big Bang Fair in London on a real German Enigma machine and then deciphered at …

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  1. Ralph B
    Black Helicopters

    They read it there first

    > lot of his work was in "innovation" and work with the private sector.

    That'll mean developing and deploying the eavesdropping APIs in Skype, iMessage, FaceBook, etc. etc.

    And/or getting ready to deal with the fire-hydrant of data coming soon from projects such as Google Glass and Memoto.

  2. Anonymous Custard
    Headmaster

    To keep in the spirit of things...

    Avpr gb frr gur obzor jbexvat ntnva, naq nyfb ratntvat jvgu fghqragf naq gur lbhatre trarengvba :)

    1. Destroy All Monsters Silver badge
      Alien

      Re: To keep in the spirit of things...

      Chtulhu fhtagn?

    2. Woodgar

      Re: To keep in the spirit of things...

      You are AManFromMars, and I claim my £5

    3. dajames
      Thumb Up

      Re: To keep in the spirit of things...

      Avpr gb frr gur obzor jbexvat ntnva, naq nyfb ratntvat jvgu fghqragf naq gur lbhatre trarengvba

      Indeed.

      P.S. One of the problems with rot13 is that it looks like rot13 even when you're not trying to decipher it ... mind you, so do quite a lot of other things.

    4. MrT

      Re: To keep in the spirit of things...

      ... engagement is key to it all ;-)

  3. John Smith 19 Gold badge
    Joke

    And of course the INtelligence services have always supported "gender preference diversity"

    Even when it was illegal in British society.

    1. Psyx
      Pint

      Re: And of course the INtelligence services have always supported "gender preference diversity"

      Ultimately the job is about results, which means looking for good people, which means putting aside discrimination.

  4. amanfromMars 1 Silver badge

    Private Pirate Operations with Stealthy Black Ops IP and ISPs on Public Spooky Sectored AIMissions

    Good Moaning, El Reg[ers] and Brid-Aine Parnell,

    Here be a whole dedicated page and zeroday exploring vulnerabilities and posted opportunities in the realisation of, rather than just impotent prevarication and pontification in, .... well, it be in ICT Circles and Circuses, CyberIntelAIgent Security Systems and Virtual Protection Programs with SMARTR ProgramMING Protocols and Fail Safe Guards ......... AI@ITsWork 4Us2

    Does the GCHQ doughnut have anything remotely similar to compare or oppose or compete with UAREHERE, ..... and if not, why not, for there is no question that such can easily make Cheltenham look really foolish and just like any and all other taxing to the hilt and overflowing with serial incompetence government department, rather than something significantly different and better and leading both global and universal affairs with QuITe AIMagical Betas, as opposed to just monitoring and advising on them? Or is that a private pirate development to be licensed under appropriate terms and conditions to the public spooky sector with selective and subjective export arrangements to other emerging and HyperRadioProActive CyberIntelAIgent States and SMARTR Non State Actors, whether under Cotonou Rules or not? And a right nice, colossal invisible export earner will it be too.

    Answers on a post card please, because for now would they be only a Yes or a No or a Maybe, to here and addressed to Mars c/o El Reg. Thanks. And have a nice one, y'all.

    1. Zog The Undeniable

      Re: Private Pirate Operations

      Is it purely a coincidence that the last cipher group is an anagram of wankr?

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Schizophrenia symptoms diagnosed ..

      "The first step in getting treatment for schizophrenia is getting a correct diagnosis. This is important to do quickly because research has shown that the sooner you get diagnosed and treated, the better the long-term outcome" link

      1. amanfromMars 1 Silver badge

        Schizophrenia with BB Stablemate, Paranoia, confirmed in Active Anonymous Attendance? :-)

        Schizophrenia symptoms diagnosed ..

        "The first step in getting treatment for schizophrenia is getting a correct diagnosis. This is important to do quickly because research has shown that the sooner you get diagnosed and treated, the better the long-term outcome" .... Anonymous Coward Posted Sunday 17th March 2013 04:20 GMT

        I couldn't agree more, Anonymous Coward, and one supposes that paranoia and the thought that one can remain anonymous and relevant and a credible voice of reason whenever posting as an Anonymous Coward would also benefit from some specialised help and professional treatment, although such as may be being discussed here are just mind games and jousts of intellects at varying degrees of development or degradation, methinks.

        Haven't you yet worked out, AC, what you have to be able to deal with today and every day, 24/7/365 ....... IT's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad Wwworld out there/in here/everywhere, and it takes more than just a touch of genius to be able to enable lead in the World and IT's Crazy Virtually Real Terrains with Live Operational Virtual Environments ........ which is precisely the very peculiar sort of particular help that Uncle Sam is requesting information, but really intelligence on, for IARPA ARGs and AREs with their UAREHERE Phish? ........... http://www.iarpa.gov/RFI/rfi_uarehere.html

        Or would you doubt it and dismiss it as rank nonsense? Although, if the truth be told, whatever you/me/anyone would think to share on the matter and those sorts of matters, would be of no real or virtual consequence to effect what will be, if they be only distractions .... for distractions are simply distractions and in the greater scheme of things, just side shows to hide and/or highlight main events, dear boy, events .... which have nowadays morphed, very conveniently one must say, into Surreal and Sublime Applications with Stealthy Healthy Ethereal Programming.

        Surely you cannot believe that the Internet and Super Advanced Intelligent Services in and/or on the Internet have not changed everything fundamentally and radically to extraordinarily render the planet Earth, a personalisable playground for a whole new series of Greater Great Games making much better use and/or abuse, if one loses the plot, of human assets?

        And do you think that is what GCHQ/NSA have cornered the markets with, and cornered and would be leading the markets in ..... or is that something which is being here offered privately, very publicly, to the market place and market places with competent and efficient or aspiring to be competent and efficient intelligence services which have lost the global plot and are rooted in and fed and led with sub-prime intellect?

        1. amanfromMars 1 Silver badge
          Flame

          Re: Schizophrenia with BB Stablemate, Paranoia, confirmed in Active Anonymous Attendance? :-)

          Oh, and ..... if you don't believe there be madness everywhere, would you settle for its little brother or baby sister, tragicomedy, with this tale, which has a long list of valuable viable comments hitting the nail right on the head, methinks .......Feds Swarm Metra Train After Detecting Nuclear Risk

          But hey, something has to be invented and presented to keep the ponzis going and economies churning out the money supply to keep folk interested and terrified of everything being invented and presented. IT aint rocket science to realise media presents the future with its shows and crazy fantastic tales .... and now there be e-mails too and instant global messaging to add to the mix and disrupt or enhance, depending upon your want, the fix.

          Welcome to Sub-Prime Great Games Play ..... for Sheep and Sheep who wannabe Wolves ... and Pseudo Sharks who be Active Frauds in Deep Pools of Applied IT and HyperRadioProActive Thought .... should that be capable of providing today and tomorrow's realities for daily calamities and opportunities.

          1. taxman
            Happy

            Re: Schizophrenia with BB Stablemate, Paranoia, confirmed in Active Anonymous Attendance? :-)

            Emo Philips......and I claim my reward and just desserts and my place on the right hand and the first pint at the bar and and and............as much othe r cool stuff as I want.

  5. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Only the toffs should go to University

    Or so the Torries think.

    1. Psyx
      Pint

      Re: Only the toffs should go to University

      Whereas the other side of the fence believes 50% of the population needs a degree in order to serve me fries.

      The answer is somewhere in the middle.

      Personally, I've never needed a degree, and I suspect 75%+ of the IT sector is in the same boat... and yet we're considered 'geeks' in a highly intellectual field of study. If we don't need degrees to be profitable members of society, it poses some awkward questions about who really does.

      1. Goldmember

        Re: Only the toffs should go to University

        "75%+ of the IT sector is in the same boat"

        That figure seems a bit high to me. You're right in that you can get by in IT without a degree, and can do very well. Also, with the pace of tachnnology advancement, a degree is useless in a practical sense in a very short time, and also doesn't mean you'll be better at your job than someone without one. But what it does do for you is open doors. Several companies (especially the larger ones) will chuck your CV in the bin at first glance if there's no degree on there. Rightly or wrongly, that's the way it is.

        I dropped out of uni and worked in IT, before realising I needed the degree to increase my prospects. After I went back and graduated, the difference in the market was substantial. I look on it as a £20k investment, which will hopefully have paid off in a few years' time.

        1. Psyx
          Happy

          Re: Only the toffs should go to University

          "That figure seems a bit high to me. You're right in that you can get by in IT without a degree, and can do very well."

          It depends on the office, I suspect. I know that a lot of younger techs have degrees, and most older ones don't. Graduates have been in the minority (by a large margin) wherever I've worked.

          "But what it does do for you is open doors. Several companies (especially the larger ones) will chuck your CV in the bin at first glance if there's no degree on there. Rightly or wrongly, that's the way it is."

          That's for the best perhaps. Companies too short-sighted to see the benefit of three years experience and an applicant who was willing to step into the 'real world' of IT straight from school don't deserve such employees. For me it shows a willingness to graft that a degree *used* to show, but no longer really does.

          It used to be that those willing to really work went to Uni, whereas now it's considered the 'doss' option in most subjects compared to getting an actual job. A sad state of affairs.

          "I look on it as a £20k investment."

          As it should be. Ultimately I believe that higher education should require some form of investment by the student. Thus the student *cares* about getting through the course. Additionally it has to be weighed up: "Is the amount this is going to cost me going to result in an income increase enough to pay it off?"

    2. DavCrav

      Re: Only the toffs should go to University

      Right, OK, let's put both the Reg and you straight on what these tuition fee things do.

      1) Tuition fees and living costs are being given out as a loan with real interest rates, at about £13000/year.

      2) You repay it for 30 years at 9% for everything over £21000/year.

      3) After 30 years the debt is CANCELLED.

      What this means is that for almost everyone they will never actually pay off their student loan until it is cancelled age (normally) 51, so it becomes a graduate tax of 9% on earnings above £21k. Just think of it as an income tax increase. Currently I am paying 9% on my income over £15k on the old system to pay off my tuition fees, and that bill is hardly coming down even then, so actually I'd be *better* off under the new system than the old system!

    3. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Only the toffs should go to University

      "Or so the Torries think."

      A pity you didn't - you might have learned to fucking spell. Or is it that you're a Grauniad reader?

  6. David Shaw

    tech apprenticeships are quite a brilliant way to learn and contribute to society

    If GCHQ took on a massive 500 apprentoids a year and trained them - slowly over three years or so - we'd reap the benefits of this bold move for forty years. That's if they were eventually allowed to migrate back to the private sector once the GWOT calms down a bit, whilst continuing to sign/uphold the OSA of course. Seriously it'd do wonders for the UK digital economy for decades.

    Greetings to Simon by the way! (I suppose there are a few Simon's employed there)

    1. SkippyBing

      Re: tech apprenticeships are quite a brilliant way to learn and contribute to society

      Personally I don't like the Global War On Terror, I prefer The War Against Terrorism...

      1. Yet Another Anonymous coward Silver badge

        Re: tech apprenticeships are quite a brilliant way to learn and contribute to society

        Since when were we against terror?

        Terror is great, if it wasn't for terror we wouldn't get all these laws through so easily, or all this funding, or all these cool toys.

        Terrorism - if it didn't exist you would have to create it.

  7. Anonymous Coward
    Big Brother

    EnigmaVariations

    For my fellow fanbois who fancy "trying this at home" there's a nice Enigma emulator by Matthias Schorer <a href="/itunes.apple.com/us/app/enigma-machine/id497265124?mt=8">available for iGadgets</a>

    1. Stoneshop
      Big Brother

      Re: EnigmaVariations

      There's also an Enigma simulator available from http://www.enigmaworldcodegroup.com/ , and for the true enthusiast, http://www.cryptomuseum.com/kits/index.htm

  8. koolholio

    And here I was..

    Thinking that CESG had history of doing such since as early as 1919

  9. Steve Knox
    Headmaster

    Amazing German Technology

    ...was sent via Twitter from the Big Bang Fair in London on a real German Enigma machine...

    I knew they were advanced, but they had a WWII code machine with a Twitter interface !?

    1. mhoulden
      Black Helicopters

      Re: Amazing German Technology

      Why do you think they came up with wartime acronyms like NORWICH, SWALK and BURMA? Not going to fit all that in a tweet, or get it past the censor.

    2. Psyx
      Stop

      Re: Amazing German Technology

      "I knew they were advanced, but they had a WWII code machine with a Twitter interface !?"

      Hardly advanced. They'd been in use for over fifteen years before the war even started!

  10. Miek
    Trollface

    I would have thought that when "put on the spot", our beloved reg hack would have blurted out "Bulgarian Airbags" or something similar.

  11. Christian Berger

    This wouldn't be feasible in Germany

    In Germany we are in general fairly anti-militaristic, at least by now. I think it comes with realizing what a bad idea WWII was. (surprisingly this is a realization which apparently only arose in the 1960s)

    Plus the hacker community had some really bad experiences with the secret service community. The movie "23" is after all based on a true story. (with quite some artistic liberties of course)

    So in Germany the 'bright minds' don't join such services. It just feels wrong to them here. That's just how we tick.

    BTW This is actually how many Germans feel about the service sector :)

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LVYKwNQZCV8

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