You might have noticed if you are a long time reader of this blog that I’m fascinated by codes and ciphers, particularly the kind that were developed before computers really came on the scene.   That’s why I’m finding the M4 Message Breaking Project interesting: they are attempting to break three two as yet unbroken code intercepts that presumably use the Nazi 4-Rotor Naval Enigma machine.

Years ago when Simon Singh’s The Code Book came out, he ran a cipher challenge that invited readers to compete for a $10,000 prize by being the first to break 10 codes.   I broke 7 out of the 10 (all the ones I thought I had a shot) including a 3 rotor Enigma encrypt.   Breaking the 4 rotor variant with a much shorter message is a significant challenge, and they’ve managed to break one of the three already.

I’ve got their distributed client running on my machine.   We shall see how it goes. 🙂

[tags]Enigma Machine,Cryptanalysis,Codes,Ciphers,Distributed Computing[/tags]