In the previous part, I described how cyber security progressed from ground zero to analogue protections. For a quick recap, civilizations historically used horses and men to transport information securely.
This was the first instance of any form of privacy protection act in the past. As cyber security threats increased, mankind began using flight transmission via pigeon encryption. Moreover, the letters were transformed into cyphers to prevent any leak if an interception took place.
These methods were an excellent way to enforce the CIA’s Infosec regulations before they existed. However, technology and cyber threats have evolved considerably over time.
Let’s have a look!
The Enigma Machine – Milestone in The History Of Cyber Security
The need for secure message transmission increased dramatically during World War 2. Various countries struggled to find appropriate methods to achieve it. It was during the chaos of WW2 that the most revolutionary device in cyber security history gained fame.
I’m talking about the Enigma Machine, invented by the Germans to encrypt messages and important telegrams. This ingenious coding device required a great deal of manpower to crack.
Without going into the complications of how the machine worked, Enigma essentially relied on a substitution encryption method to secure its notes. A single message could be encoded in a billion ways, so the code could never be broken.
The Enigma Machine was the 20th-century solution to information security threats. It followed Infosec principles throughout the process and transmitted data using unbreakable encryption methods.
It was so impressive that even the US used it for low-level transmissions decades later. However, there is a limit to every success.
Unfortunately, for the Germans and Enigma, it was a talented mathematician, Alan Turing!
How Alan Turing Cracked The Enigma
When the Enigma cypher was first intercepted, several nations struggled to decipher the code. Countries like Poland actually came quite close. However, as the Germans increased the security of their coded telegrams, a strong countermeasure was needed.
This is where Alan Turing’s innovations come into the history of cyber security. Alongside his fellow code-breaker, Gordon Welchman, Turing invented the Bombe machine using Polish-based methods. British engineers developed the Bombe to decode German codes quickly using electro-mechanical technology. It was a practical solution as it decoded the messages efficiently.
Cyber Security Threats Never Rest!
Though this machine was not technically a computer, it is a fine representation of today’s deciphering methods.
Similarly to today’s cyber security methods, every decoding process in the past started with mathematics. With each invention, we reached closer to the modern cyber and information security world, enabling us to work with the protection we enjoy now.
However, before I discuss the ultimate evolution of cyber security, a few more historical milestones need to be addressed.
Hence, stay tuned to learn more about the latest advantages in cyber security!