Public Invited to Try Their Luck Against Old Cipher Tech

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."

Original Cypher?

[Ironsides]

A working replica of the code-breaking device will return to active service as part of the Cipher Challenge on 15 November to mark the launch of the National Museum of Computing.

So it looks like they are using the original wheel combinations, which are widely known. This means I could probably emulate Colossus on my calculator and still solve it faster.

Whats the Frequency, Kenneth?

[Subgenius]

No, seriously. Having a bunch of RTTY gear over here, this might be a fun Thursday diversion....

Re:where was the cream filling!?

[yahooadam]

"Why would they do this after the war? Wouldn't they want to explore the technology for other uses, and profit further from the leadership in this field they developed? I mean, what's the reason for hiding (and, worse, destroying!) their code-breaking machine after the war has ended?"
Maybe they were just trying to hide it

I mean, if people could get holds of the plans on colossus, and find out how the cipher was done, they could probably work out much more difficult encryption methods
if you think about it, colossus was the absolute peak of what we could do, if anyone got hold of that it would be a dangerous weapon

Its easier to deny something's existence if it doesn't exist

Re:A real contest?

[NeoSkink]

Z3 beat ENIAC by a couple of years.

http://www.zib.de/zuse/Inhalt/Kommentare/Html/0684/universal2.html

Re:where was the cream filling!?

[mlush]

The main reason for the destruction (of Colossus) was that we no longer needed the same number of machines. We did keep two though I believe which were moved to GCHQ (General Communications Head Quarters - Our eavesdropping department). We certainly did not destroy them all but much of what they did after the war will still be classified. I've heard scurrilous rumors that the Enigma (Do I really need to wiki link it:-) machines were sold on to other nations...

Re:A real contest?

[McSnarf]

*The article doesn't explain how 1940s hardware competing with modern hardware is a remotely interesting contest.*

I had the luck to visit the Bletchley Park facility earlier this year. (Are you a True Geek? Do the same. They need the money and I mean that.)

That piece of '40s hardware might look like a crossbreed of a Wells time machine and a phone exchange, but it was (the replica is) incredibly fast. At one very specific task only, solving one of a class of problems. Do not overestimate the speed of a modern PC - it is kept back by years and years of inefficient programming. The people working on Colossus were Real Programmers of the first order (no quiche!). I'd expect the race to be pretty close.

Germans borrowing German technology

[clacke]

A slightly ironic detail: It seems the Germans don't have any Lorenz SZ42 machines left [chaos-paderborn.de], and they have to borrow one from the British GCHQ [gchq.gov.uk], while promising not to repossess it as war loot.