historian+quest+1

== Overview To reach our first quest hub for English 112 we needed to crack a code. Encoding a short message in a simple letter exchange, professor Parent asked us to decipher this sequence in order to reveal the desired information. Turns out, that desired information was “kitties”. As such, people have been burying messages beneath one or more layers of code for thousands of years. ==

==**History** Coding can only function properly if the intended recipient can crack the code or has prior knowledge of the code in question. Therefore, to a certain extent all codes are designed to be broken. Coined by William Friedman in 1920, the term “cryptanalysis” refers to the science and methodology behind breaking codes. Despite its late arrival to the English language, cryptanalysis has existed as long as coding itself. The first example of frequency analysis was discovered in a 9th century manuscript by a man named Al-Kindi. An important development in code breaking, frequency analysis is based on the commonalities of regular language. Since any particular language uses some letters of the alphabet more than others, “frequency analysis relies on a cipher failing to hide these statistics” (Singh, Simon). When further coding methods were developed in 15th century Europe by Blaise de Vigenere, the French diplomat claimed them to be indecipherable. The aptly named “Vigenere cipher” is based on polyalphabetic substitution and uses a repeating key to choose certain encryption alphabets in rotation. It did not, however, live up to its description. In following centuries, both Charles Babbage and Friedrich Kasiski broke Vigenere’s unbreakable code. ==  In these examples, linguistic knowledge was the principle method in cryptanalysis. However, the 20th century introduced an era of advanced warfare and in the years leading up to World War II, mathematics became crucial in coding secret information and intercepting foreign intelligence. Specifically, cryptanalysis of the Enigma was used by the Allies in order to decode Morse-coded communications between Axis powers. The Enigma machines were polyalphabetic substitution ciphers designed by the Germans to create unbreakable codes. But, without proper utilization by the German secret service, the Allied forces were able to decipher the encrypted messages. By identifying the system, then breaking it and finally setting it, it became possible to intercept the secret radio transmissions that according to Eisenhower were “decisive” in the Allied victory of WWII.

**Data**
 [|cryptanalysis]  [|the enigma]

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