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Human factors and missed solutions to Enigma design weaknesses

Harold Thimbleby Orcid Logo

Cryptologia, Volume: 40, Issue: 2, Pages: 177 - 202

Swansea University Author: Harold Thimbleby Orcid Logo

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DOI (Published version): 10.1080/01611194.2015.1028680

Abstract

The German World War II Enigma suffered from design weaknesses that facilitated its large-scale decryption by the British throughout the war. The author shows that the main technical weaknesses (self-coding and reciprocal coding) could have been avoided using simple contemporary technology, and ther...

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Published in: Cryptologia
ISSN: 1558-1586
Published: Taylor & Francis 2016
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URI: https://cronfa.swan.ac.uk/Record/cronfa28818
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first_indexed 2016-06-09T18:25:59Z
last_indexed 2018-06-06T04:06:15Z
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spelling 2018-06-05T22:27:28.2457312 v2 28818 2016-06-09 Human factors and missed solutions to Enigma design weaknesses c12beb0ab0e333a9a512589d411d17f3 0000-0003-2222-4243 Harold Thimbleby Harold Thimbleby true false 2016-06-09 FGSEN The German World War II Enigma suffered from design weaknesses that facilitated its large-scale decryption by the British throughout the war. The author shows that the main technical weaknesses (self-coding and reciprocal coding) could have been avoided using simple contemporary technology, and therefore the true cause of the weaknesses is not technological but must be sought elsewhere. Specifically, human factors issues resulted in the persistent failure to seek out more effective designs. Similar limitations seem to beset the literature on the period, which misunderstands the Enigma weaknesses and therefore inhibits broader thinking about design or realising the critical role of human factors engineering in cryptography. Journal Article Cryptologia 40 2 177 202 Taylor & Francis 1558-1586 31 12 2016 2016-12-31 10.1080/01611194.2015.1028680 This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. The moral rights of the named author have been asserted. COLLEGE NANME Science and Engineering - Faculty COLLEGE CODE FGSEN Swansea University RCUK 2018-06-05T22:27:28.2457312 2016-06-09T18:13:31.9266010 Harold Thimbleby 0000-0003-2222-4243 1 0028818-19052017214523.pdf EnigmaCryptologia.pdf 2017-05-19T21:45:23.4600000 Output 1176086 application/pdf Version of Record true 2017-05-19T00:00:00.0000000 true eng 0028818-18072016162026.pdf HumanFactorsandMissedSolutionstoEnigmaDesignWeaknesses.pdf 2016-07-18T16:20:26.3930000 Output 1454694 application/pdf Version of Record true 2016-07-18T00:00:00.0000000 true
title Human factors and missed solutions to Enigma design weaknesses
spellingShingle Human factors and missed solutions to Enigma design weaknesses
Harold Thimbleby
title_short Human factors and missed solutions to Enigma design weaknesses
title_full Human factors and missed solutions to Enigma design weaknesses
title_fullStr Human factors and missed solutions to Enigma design weaknesses
title_full_unstemmed Human factors and missed solutions to Enigma design weaknesses
title_sort Human factors and missed solutions to Enigma design weaknesses
author_id_str_mv c12beb0ab0e333a9a512589d411d17f3
author_id_fullname_str_mv c12beb0ab0e333a9a512589d411d17f3_***_Harold Thimbleby
author Harold Thimbleby
author2 Harold Thimbleby
format Journal article
container_title Cryptologia
container_volume 40
container_issue 2
container_start_page 177
publishDate 2016
institution Swansea University
issn 1558-1586
doi_str_mv 10.1080/01611194.2015.1028680
publisher Taylor & Francis
document_store_str 1
active_str 0
description The German World War II Enigma suffered from design weaknesses that facilitated its large-scale decryption by the British throughout the war. The author shows that the main technical weaknesses (self-coding and reciprocal coding) could have been avoided using simple contemporary technology, and therefore the true cause of the weaknesses is not technological but must be sought elsewhere. Specifically, human factors issues resulted in the persistent failure to seek out more effective designs. Similar limitations seem to beset the literature on the period, which misunderstands the Enigma weaknesses and therefore inhibits broader thinking about design or realising the critical role of human factors engineering in cryptography.
published_date 2016-12-31T03:35:10Z
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score 11.037056

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