Virtual Lorenz: An online version of the message encryption machine used by Hitler is available for anyone to try.
The UK's National Museum of Information Technology (national Museum of Computing ή TNMC) παρουσίασε τη μηχανή Virtual Lorenz για τον εορτασμό της εκατονταετηρίδας του Bill Tutte, του μαθηματικού του Bletchley Park που έσπασε το system German Command's Lorenz SZ42 cipher, allowing the Allies to decipher their secrets.
"Tutte's work, often regarded as the greatest intellectual achievement of the war, reduced the conflict by allowing the enemy's strategic messages to be deciphered on a regular basis - and very quickly with the help of computers Colossus", reports the National Museum of Informatics.
Tutte and colleague John Tillman compared how Lorenz's 12-rotor worked for a period of three months. They managed to "break" it without having seen the machine, which was considered more complicated than the most famous encryption machine Enigma.
According to a colleague of theirs Tony Sale, the coders called the Lorenz machines and their traffic "fish", which in Lorenz's case was Tunny or tuna fish. Although they cracked Tunny, it initially took six weeks to decipher them messages. Colossus was helping to make decryption faster.
The online cryptographer Lorenz reproduces Lorenz SZ42's high industrial sound, as well as the sound of the machine when messages are exchanged.
Martin Gillow, who created Virtual Lorenz, says the inspiration for the project was a Virtual Colossus. Gillow also created one An update to the ancient computer.
“As a programmer, I was excited about the reconstruction of the Colossus computer when I first saw it at the National Museum of Information Technology. Tony Sale, who led the rebuild team, also created a Virtual Colossus for the web, but I found out that it will only run on old browsers", He said.
"So I decided to recreate the Virtual Colossus, and then a Virtual Lorenz to accompany it. It took months of work in my spare time and its unveiling to the public at the museum was a real thrill. "
Virtual Lorenz is not easy to use, but TNMC assures it is easier than the original war.
Gillow provides detailed tutorials explaining how to use the machine to exchange encrypted messages with others, or you can set the machine to work automatically. Just type your text.
