小竞 (编辑)
关键要点：
- 在二战期间打破恩尼格玛密码对于击败纳粹和拯救数百万人的生命至关重要。
- 恩尼格玛密码和破解它的机器的完整故事直到1990年代才被揭示出来。
- 破解恩尼格玛密码的人阿兰·图灵的故事是2014年奥斯卡获奖电影《模仿游戏》的主题。
- 恩尼格玛机器的名字来自于爱德华·艾尔加创作的管弦乐作品《谜题变奏曲》。
- 1942年，阿兰·图灵协助美国海军创建了一台bombe解码器模拟器。
- 2020年，一台恩尼格玛机器在拍卖会上以44万美元的价格售出。
恩尼格玛机器是由德国工程师阿瑟·谢比乌斯于1918年发明的一种电机密码设备。该设备类似于手动打字机，使用一系列转子来混淆信息。尽管谢比乌斯打算将该设备用于商业用途，但纳粹在二战期间之前和期间使用它来对德国指挥部发出的战略信息进行编码。接收者也必须有一台恩尼格玛机器才能解码信息。
恩尼格玛机器的历史
关于恩尼格玛机器的完整细节在数十年间一直失落，直到2003年发现了一份古老的手稿。这篇由卡尔·德·利乌撰写的论文详细描述了恩尼格玛机器，并详述了其发明者阿瑟·谢比乌斯所做的一些改动。
快速事实
- 创造时间
- 1918年
- 创造者
- 阿瑟·谢比乌斯
- 最初用途
- 加密
- 成本
- 不适用
该发明的首批专利于1918年由合伙人谢比乌斯和里特提出，这是一家为企业和政府创建该设备以编码机密信息的德国公司的创始人。当时，发明者们并不知道这个编码机器将成为第二次世界大战结果的关键因素。
历史学家认为发明者们将该设备命名为爱德华·艾尔加创作的管弦乐作品《谜题变奏曲》。这些编码机器于1923年开始首次以“恩尼格玛”品牌销售。该设备在1920年代主要被商业行业使用，并且一些政府在二战之前和期间开始使用，其中最著名的是纳粹德国。
恩尼格玛机器的工作原理
与当今技术相比，恩尼格玛机器是一种相对简单的设备。外观上，它很容易被误认为是20世纪初的手动打字机。尽管外表平凡，但该机器产生的密码加密几乎不可能被破译。
密码学机器会将一个人输入的字母转换为不同的字母，以便没有解密密钥的人只能看到一堆毫无意义的字母乱序，即多重字母替代密码。接收编码通信的预定接收者也需要同样的机器来解码信息。
恩尼格玛机器与手动打字机非常相似。
恩尼格玛机器的历史意义
the historical significance of the enigma machine centers mostly on its usage for encoding nazi strategic messages and the efforts of the british code breakers to crack the enigma code. the invention of the enigma machine was also one of the first major steps in the advancement of modern encryption techniques.
during world war ii, german command used the encryption machine to prevent the ally forces from deciphering messages that were broadcast to nazi forces. allied forces quickly realized that decrypting these messages could give them a decisive edge to expose the flaws in the nazi reliance on coded messages for security.
poland, under the leadership of mathematician marian rejewski, broke the enigma code before the war began. in 1939, they shared this knowledge with the british decoders because it was clear that a german invasion was imminent. however, prior to the onset of the war, the nazis realized that there were flaws in their secrecy, and they increased the security of their communications by changing the cipher system every day. the problem for the allies then became a matter of breaking the code quickly enough to keep pace with the daily changes in the encryption patterns.
a secret team of british decoders known as utra led by mathematician alan turing was tasked with cracking the enigma code. turing devised a plan to create a device that could perform the code-breaking math much faster and with fewer flaws than a team of hundreds of code-breakers could.
without this machine, the enigma code could not be deciphered in time before it was changed on the following day. the decoding machine invented by alan turing that led to the invention of the modern computer was called “the bombe.”
the enigma machine used a series of rotors to scramble messages.
the bombe operated with a method that turing referred to as “turingery.” its design was based on the mechanical operation of the enigma machine, and the solution depended on learning the rotor positions on the device that produced a new scrambling pattern each day.
when the rotor positions that were set on the enigma machine were deciphered, the code breakers could use the rotor settings on an enigma machine to read the encrypted messages. during the war, turing visited the united states, and the information that he shared helped the u.s. navy for their purpose of creating a simulator of the bombe.
by the end of world war ii, it was calculated that the bombe enabled allied forces to defeat the axis forces years earlier than they could have otherwise. without the device created by turing, the war would have cost millions more lives.
after the war, turing continued to work on an idea for a “universal turing machine” which was the first theoretical idea for a true working computer. his published design for the “automatic computing engine” is believed to be the precursor to the first functional computers that emerged several years later.
the history of the enigma machine in film
in 2014, a thriller entitled the imitation game was released theatrically in the united states. this film, starring benedict cumberbatch in the lead role, recounts the story of turing’s role in cracking the enigma code.
