Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
and weapons of mass destruction. Radio, for example, with its
ability to transmit messages through the air without the aid of wires,
had been invented in the
s by Marconi. This presented an
unprecedented set of challenges. In conjunction with the greater
mobility made possible by the development of the internal combus-
tion engine, it transformed warfare. Commanders and troops could
signal to each other without the necessity of laying physical lines
of communication. In theory at least this greatly increased the flex-
ibility and capacity of movement of armies. But this freedom came
at a price: the enemy could easily intercept any signal broadcast by
radio. In the beginning of this century European governments began
to see both the possibilities and dangers of radio communication
and prepare appropriate ways of tackling them. Attention began to
be paid to cryptography and cryptoanalysis, the sciences of encod-
ing and decoding messages (illus.
1870
). Among those involved in this
work was Alan Turing. It was Turing's mathematical expertise, rather
12
12 A three-ring Enigma
cypher machine in its
wooden transit case,
1930s. It was used by the
Germans during WWII to
encode and decode secret
transmissions to U-boats.
