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WWII Colossus Codecracker Outdone by a German

Posted by Zonk on Fri Nov 16, 2007 01:03 PM
from the oh-irony-you-are-so-sweet dept.
Encryption Security Communications Technology
superglaze writes "The Colossus codecracker contest was a short-lived ordeal. Not only has it been outdone in a cipher-breaking challenge, but — irony of ironies — it was beaten by a German! From the story: 'The winner was Joachim Schüth, from Bonn, who completed the task using software he wrote himself. "[Schüth] cracked the most difficult code yesterday," said the museum's spokesperson on Friday. "We're absolutely delighted. He used specially written software for the challenge. Colossus is still chugging away, as we got the signals late. Yesterday the atmospheric conditions were such that we couldn't get good signals.'"
+ -
story

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[+] Public Invited to Try Their Luck Against Old Cipher Tech 95 comments
Stony Stevenson writes to tell us that in celebration of the opening of the National Museum of Computing, members of the public are being challenged to take on a rebuilt version of Colossus, the world's first programmable digital computer. The Cipher Challenge will take two groups of amateur code breakers and pit them against one of the original Lorenz cipher machine used by the German High Command during World War II. "The encrypted teleprinter message will be transmitted by radio from colleagues in Paderborn, Germany, and intercepted at Bletchley Park by the two code-breaking groups, one using modern PCs and the other using the newly rebuilt Colossus Mark II."
[+] Colossus Cracks Again 88 comments
BOfH writes "The BBC is reporting that following a 14-year rebuild project, the Colossus computer is once again cracking codes at Bletchley Park." They will crack WWII-era encrypted messages, and compete against modern PCs. Fun stuff for crypto nerds and history buffs.
Firehose:WWII Colossus codecracker outdone by a German by superglaze (1112971)
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WWII Colossus Codecracker Outdone by a German 25 Comments More /

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  • wait wait wait. (Score:4, Interesting)

    by moogied (1175879) on Friday November 16 2007, @01:05PM (#21380479)
    I thought germans weren't allowed to have hacking software on there computers?

    "user disabling or circumventing computer security measures to access secure data,"
    http://www.ibls.com/internet_law_news_portal_view.aspx?s=latestnews&id=1830 [ibls.com]

    Perhaps because they wanted him to "crack" it?

      • Not all Germans who lived from the 1930's to the 1950's were Nazis. The Nazi party was a political party, not an affiliation of inventors.

        -Rick

          • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

            by RingDev (879105)
            Just saying that associating an amateur radio operator/programmer with the Nazi party is a bit on the delusional side.

            There are some really weird misconceptions out there about Germany, both present and past.

            -Rick

      • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

        by moogied (1175879)
        Sure! :) The section of the law(if you want to look it up) is Section 202c StGB. The law basically say it is illegal to possess, distrubute, sell, or *create*, any software which has the ability to displace security. Such as cryptography.. he "uses his own program" to decrypt the message. Which in turn displaced its security..

        Now I do not really believe this is illegal under german law.. but I am saying that I would not be suprised if someone tried to charge him.

  • Well, there goes my (Score:3, Funny)

    by ronadams (987516) on Friday November 16 2007, @01:06PM (#21380493) Homepage
    "Colossus DRM System" project...

  • Vee Haf (Score:3, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward on Friday November 16 2007, @01:09PM (#21380525)
    Vee haf vays uf makink you drink more Ovaltine!

  • Irony? (Score:3, Informative)

    by SnoopJeDi (859765) <snoopjedi@gPASCALmail.com minus language> on Friday November 16 2007, @01:10PM (#21380549)
    It's not irony! :(
    • Tag it !irony, I know I did. :P

    • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

      by 0xdeadbeef (28836)
      The actual reality of the situation does not diminish the ironic juxtaposition in our minds of a Nazi helping the Allies.

      And if irony is so misused, why isn't there a word to fill that gap? We have sarcasm and hypocrisy, (and, of course, bad luck and coincidence), so what is the word for something doing its opposite for dramatic or humorous effect?
  • Of course the German was able to crack it first. I mean, Colossus was made to crack German codes. Clearly this German guy already knew how to crack it to begin with...
    • Actually, the encrypted text was written in German, and the local broadcasts were made IN Germany.

      So it would be significantly more amazing if someone OTHER than a German cracked it.

      -Rick

  • Time travel hero wannabe (Score:4, Insightful)

    by magarity (164372) on Friday November 16 2007, @01:15PM (#21380619)
    Now I just need a copy of the software on my laptop and a time warping wormhole to 1942.
     
    Just have to remember not to ask for "pepsi, free"...

  • source code (Score:5, Informative)

    by Anonymous Coward on Friday November 16 2007, @01:19PM (#21380661)
    He posted the source code on his hompeage at http://www.schlaupelz.de/SZ42/SZ42_software.html [schlaupelz.de].
    Most of it is written in Ada.

  • racism? (Score:5, Insightful)

    by RingDev (879105) on Friday November 16 2007, @01:25PM (#21380745) Homepage Journal
    I could understand a stereotype tag, even a nationalism tag, but racism? Are the taggers implying that people from German are of different races than the rest of the world?

    I RTFA and there is nothing racist in there. Just that a guy from Germany cracked the code using some software written in Ada.

    -Rick

        • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

          by nagora (177841)
          Why do you guys make such a topic of that man being a german?

          It's called "irony". Jesus! It's not that complicated.

          TWW

  • get that man a time machine quick!! (Score:5, Funny)

    by Some_Llama (763766) on Friday November 16 2007, @01:29PM (#21380807) Homepage Journal
    oh wait..

  • What was that about secret svcs? (Score:5, Interesting)

    by mattr (78516) <mattrNO@SPAMtelebody.com> on Friday November 16 2007, @02:09PM (#21381375) Homepage Journal
    Heise security article says, "...British and German secret services initially had reservations about the cipher challenge."

    I'd like to know more about what they said. Are they worried it will encourage kids to get interested in crypto? Where do they expect to pick up talented cryptographers anyway?

  • Achtung! (Score:5, Funny)

    by dkleinsc (563838) on Friday November 16 2007, @02:13PM (#21381437)
    Das encryptmachine ist nicht fuer gefingerpoken und mittengrabben. Ist easy wrecken der secrets, schnatchendatas und breakensecurity mit grossembrassen. Ist nicht fuer gewerken bei das dumpkopfen.
    • If you're going to be pedantic, I will too.

      1941-12-07

      Try -08. The Japanese military ran off Tokyo time, not local time.

        • Never underestimate Nazi brains, and be very glad (Frenchies especially) Hitler had syphillis and was quite bonkers. You would all be driving around in volkswagons, wearing lederhosen, talking german, paying in deutche mark, and working in the mines to keep the germans even fatter.

          Just a thought, but I've always considered that the Germans were lucky to have lost the war when they did. Why?

          The atomic bomb. It's easy to forget that it was developed in response to fears that the Germans might develop one first (which makes it ironic that it was the Japanese that it was ultimately used against). It might be easy in retrospect to say that they weren't realistically close to having one during WWII, but this wasn't so clear at the time.

          And even if this *had* become known towards the e

          • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

            by uradu (10768)
            Well, lucky are the few with such moral certitude as you. It's not clear at all that the Allies would have ever dropped a bomb over Germany, given the proximity of so many Allied countries. They had no qualms dropping them on Japan because of its geographic isolation. Besides, obliterating Germany that way would have prevented much of the technological looting after the war. The US in particular made out like bandits so to speak, and the war ended up being a net economic gain in the long run, both in terms

              • Re: (Score:3, Interesting)

                by uradu (10768)
                That hardly applies to the US after WWII. While the war certainly cost the US a lot of money, they gained a massive captive market in Europe for several decades that wouldn't have been the same without the war, since Europe had had its own strong industrial competitors to the US. I would consider the US more like the glazier in the parable, since its costs were negligible compared to the benefits, as opposed to those borne by Europe and other parts of the world.

                Besides, I wasn't talking about immediate gain

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