Experts reveal the secrets of ciphers

In our ever-developing digital world, the need for encryption to protect our data goes beyond keeping credit-card numbers and customer information private, all the way to the highest echelons of our national security apparatuses. From unwanted telemarketing to terrorist acts, encryption protects us, but the basic principles are nothing new. Even the Spartans used primitive cylinder ciphers to pass messages to the battle field, and mechanized cryptography made astounding advances during the Second World War and the heyday of cloak-and-dagger espionage, the Cold War.

The Secret of Ciphers conference at Prague College May 30-June 2 will explore all this and more with multiple panels of both academics and intelligence professionals who will present the history of cryptography and the science's implications for modern intelligence gathering.

"It's not just about numbers," reassures conference organizer and head of the Business and Computing school at Prague College, Stefano Cavagnetto. "I wanted to get a mix of the theoretical and practical aspects."

Organized in cooperation with the Military History Institute of the Czech Republic (VHÚ) and the National Security Authority (NBÚ), the conference will offer a rare public display of the cryptography machine nicknamed "Dalibor," which was used by the Czechoslovak intelligence services. Czech experts will also discuss the Czechoslovak approach to intelligence and encryption during communism as well as during the Velvet Revolution, and what the Czechoslovaks knew about the Nazis, including work on their infamously complex Enigma code.

Cavagnetto explains that the Enigma machine, which used a complex system of rotors to transpose German type into the code, was originally created in the early 1920s for commercial purposes, but the technology was appropriated and improved on by the Nazis who used it to keep their communiqués secret from the Allies.

But even if the technology was advanced for its time and the mathematics intriguingly complex, Cavagnetto says you can never escape the human factor when it comes to encryption.

"Most of what the allies knew about the Enigma came from double agents, defectors and intelligence," he said.

In the age of WikiLeaks, in which one individual exposed the secrets of countless governments despite the protection of multiple layers of encryption, the human factor has never been more apparent, nor has our lack of understanding of how data encryption systems work.

"We use a lot of encrypted things everyday - credit cards, mobile phones, the Internet. ... It's something we trust without really knowing what it is, and it warrants having a closer look," Cavagnetto said.

In order to take that closer look, Cavagnetto has invited academics as well as intelligence professionals who have worked in the trenches. The panel will include a former West German spy, a leading expert on the radio and photography devices of East and West German security services, as well as retired Czech General Andor Šándor, the former chief of defense intelligence.

Šándor has an 18-year professional history in intelligence and was in charge of the transfer of Czech intelligence to NATO when the country joined the alliance in 1999. He now consults private companies and governments on their security structures, and though he doesn't work directly with cryptography anymore, he can attest to how essential good encryption is to security.

"You really need to transmit the data you collect and have it encrypted so the ones who want to penetrate you and do harm have no chance," Šándor said. "With all of the hackers and cyber terrorists out there who want to do harm, you have to be ready."

So with all of the money, effort and brainpower put into improving encryption and deciphering the codes of enemies, is there a there an end-all be-all of ciphers? An uncrackable code?

"I'll give you a bit of a provocation," Cavagnetto said in answer to the question, explaining that the Voynich manuscript, a 240-page handwritten cipher-text manuscript dating back to the early 15th century, the meaning of which continues to elude even the best cryptanalysts at the United States' National Security Agency, could be considered the most difficult code in the world.

"If you could crack that," he said "Well, that would be amazing."

Emily Thompson can be reached at
ethompson@praguepost.com