I’m reading a novel (Popco, by Scarlett Thomas, in case you’re itnerested) in which the narrator tells the (obviously fictitious) story that her toy company had created a working replica of the Enigma machine, but that it didn’t sell in the US because the State Department wouldn’t allow it.
Is there a kernel of truth to this story - that is, would the State Department refuse to allow a manufacturer to sell a replica Enigma machine in the US, presumaby out of fear that terrorists and/or subversives would use it?
Nonsense. By today’s standards the Enigma is nothing. There are plenty of computer encryption systems which would leave Enigma in the dust and which are legal.
Some years ago I had an exchange with the Spy museum in DC and they expressed interest in selling a toy Enigma which was something someone I knew was considering.
No, there is no truth to it. For one thing, Enigma is trivial to crack with modern computers.
There are laws in the US that control the export of cryptographic technology: for example, it used to be illegal to export any technology from the US that used a 128-bit or larger key, so Netscape could only legally provide 40-bit SSL outside the country. The government eventually realized the uselessness of these regulations, since it’s not like 128-bit SSL was a big secret, and repealed them around 1996. The only remaining regulations concern the export of cryptographic information that is classified by the government, and of course export of anything to countries like North Korea, Iran and Sudan.
Lots of people have built replica Enigma machines, BTW. Here’s a kit that you can buy.
There are programs out there, right now on the internet which allow one to encrypt a messages using a “virtual enigma” machine. I have used it with a friend.
The original Macintosh G4 was restricted for export because it was classified as “munitions.” The export laws had to be updated to account for the exponential increase in computing power.
There’s one sitting in the NSA museum near DC. Its supposedly functional.
*
presumaby out of fear that terrorists and/or subversives would use it? *
Enigma was considered weak 50 years ago and a schoolboy can google how to crack it pretty easily. Considering criminals have AES and PGP/GPG there’s really no reason to believe this tall tale.
The Enigma cipher is so easy to break today that it’s pretty close to a Boys Life level. Might be enough to keep something secret from your pesty little sister, but that’s about it.
The devices themselves are certainly scarce - any controls on them would be from the standpoint of safeguarding them as historical relics. That said, I have had the opportunity to play with one of the real ones for a while. It’s pretty awe-inspiring to put your hands on one of those things and realize that it was invented over 80 years ago.
In fairness to the hardworking men and women of the Polish Cipher Bureau and Britain’s Bletchley Park, this is true only because the cipher has already been broken.
Very true - there was a rather concerted effort to break it. I have books about the “Bombe” and the people who tirelessly crunched away at it, and again, it’s awe-inspiring to think about what they were doing way back then with physical machinery. Today, it’s just a few CPU cycles, but back then, it took huge arrays of hand-wired rotors and a lot of brute-force helped immensely by lazy Nazis who failed to change their encryption keys.
Another coding that amazes me is SIGSALY, first used in 1943. I don’t think it was ever broken, but key exchange was a horrible problem - the keys were essentially phonograph recordings of electrical noise. Again, no computers as we know them today - just two very carefully synchronized turntables to play out the temporal keys at opposite ends of the world. It was used to encrypt real-time voice conversations.
Also, the United States does have export restrictions on various things that could be used for military purposes (including computer components or software that could be used for cryptography), but does the U.S. have any import restrictions on any of that stuff? My impression is that we want to keep all that stuff out of the hands of Kim Jong-Il or Osama bin Laden, but if some foreigner wants to send over their cutting edge super-duper code machine* to us, we’re perfectly OK with that.
*Or their hopelessly obsolete code machine that could now qualify for the Senior Discount at Denny’s.
They just tore down the building where the bombe’s were made. Not pretty enough to save (it was extensively altered). Anyway, from the description of where they dumped the old machines I think I know where they buried them. If I ever see any construction in the area I will be all over it.
There are at least two people making replicas or parts which are offered for sale in the U.S. Plus there are probably more Enigmas in the U.S. than in any other country. There is one fellow who owns about 30 of them, and there are at least 5 people I know of who are building replica machines for their own use.
The NSA has also assisted people who are building replicas by giving access to the machines they have in their museum. So the government probably dosnt care one way or the other if you have an Enigma, or a replica.
Also if the secret of the machine was going to be kept, there wouldnt be as many computer simulators or electronic versions of the machine as there are. People have been studying the Enigma for years. There are people who have practicaly devoted their whole life to it; as goofy as that might sound.
I currently have a full set of 3D CAD files for building a replica, which I’ve worked on for some time. I plan on making one for myself starting some time this summer.
Do a search for replicas, and you will see quite a bit of information.
