22nd August 2020
I have finished a book about the intelligence industry. Intelligence as in spying and gathering intel on friends and foe alike. There is a section on disguising text that you want to pass on secretly using code or a cipher. A code converts whole words or phrases into other words or numbers, whereas a cipher is the changing of a message on a letter by letter basis. In order to decode a code, a code book is needed. These are like dictionaries which list the codes and their associated words or phrases so if this code book is lost or stolen it can compromise the information being transmitted. Using code is quite a cumbersome process if you are looking to send or understand long pieces of information. However simple alterations to a code can change text quite radically i.e changing a word that means ‘kill’ to mean ‘meet’ in a sentence, so at times, utilising simple code can be very effective.
It is fascinating to appreciate that the disguising of messages has been in existence for a long time. The Spartans in 405 BC were able to read a message on an encoded belt by wrapping it around a particular wooden pole. The Arabs in the 9th Century wrote books on Cryptography explaining that using frequency analysis was most useful in deciphering English messages. They understood for example that if you found the most frequent symbol utilised – that was the letter E. In the 1650’s, John Thurloe (Cromwell’s spy master) relied on the skills of Crypto-analysis to keep foes away and was highly regarded in Europe for this deviousness.
But the hiding of thoughts and information exists much closer to home. Who didn’t try to encrypt their diaries or secret thoughts when they were younger with a language only they knew? I used the word ‘Flip Flops’ as a replacement for a much stronger swear word in front of my snitch little brother. I was a code master and I didn’t even know it!
The book goes on to say that although although through history it has been the code breakers who seem to gather the glory, sometimes message breaking is about the simple stuff. During World War II, the Germans knew a large air raid was on the way from the UK from the chatter on the radio as air crews tested their radios before take off.
On a tangent Edward Snowden has explained how surveilled the American population is and he states that we in the UK are even more watched. The intelligence gathering capabilities of the US and UK governments seem un-restrained with Snowden pointing out footage of the NSA ‘lying’ to Congress about the extent of their activities. I’m quite torn when I think of these capabilities. I want to be safe and like the idea of our Intelligence agencies seamlessly preventing horrors but I worry about the Big Brother aspect to it. I am always surprised at how comfortable people seem to be with giving unintended permission to be observed by Alexa and Siri. Never seeming to consider that their conversations and data could be compromised by both good and bad actors and possibly not even in the interests of society.
Curiosity and the rascal 