Cipher machines have evolved from simple wooden wheels to high-tech computers with router encryption software. Julius Caesar’s monoalphabetic cipher inspired the first mechanical encryption machine, while Leon Battista Alberti developed the first polyalphabetic cipher. The Enigma machine was famously cracked by US, British and Polish cryptographers. Modern cipher machines offer guaranteed message integrity and sender authentication.
A cipher machine is a device used to encode and decode individual words and messages. The evolution of the cipher machine has been heavily influenced by seemingly inevitable instances of code breaking. Historically used by militaries and governments around the world, cipher machines have evolved from their very simple construction of wooden wheels to high-tech computers equipped with router encryption software.
The first documented case of the use of ciphers details Julius Caesar, who used ciphers as a means of communicating with his generals on the battlefield. His cipher used a shift in alphabetic characters that remained constant throughout the entire message, known as a monoalphabetic cipher. Caesar’s encryption algorithm would later serve as the inspiration for an encryption machine that would be the first to mechanically encrypt messages.
Leon Battista Alberti, known as the father of Western cryptography, developed the first mechanical encryption machine. Inspired by Cesare’s cipher techniques, Alberti’s machine was the first to use a polyalphabetic cipher. Developed in 1467, the Alberti cipher used more than one alphabet and switched from one alphabet to another while encrypting the message with the aid of a metal cipher disk.
The Vigenere Cipher emerged in 1533 as described in a work by Giovan Battista Bellaso called La Cifra. The encryption method used a series of Caesar ciphers that relied on a single keyword, in essence, a polyalphabetic substitution method. Due to a credit misattribution during the 19th century, the cipher method was attributed to Blaise de Vigenere and has since been known as the Vigenere Cipher.
The Jefferson Cipher Wheel, invented by Thomas Jefferson, was developed in 1795 and employed a stack of 26 wooden wheels mounted on an axle. Each wheel was distinct, with the alphabet arranged arbitrarily around its circumference. The Jefferson Cipher Wheel proved to be a powerful tool for short, short messages and was used by the US Army until 1942.
One of the most famous cipher machines, the Enigma machine, was invented by a German engineer named Arthur Scherbius in 1918. After a period of unsuccessful marketing by Scherbius, the Enigma was purchased by the German government in 1926. ‘Enigma was successfully cracked by US, British and Polish cryptographers; however, the breach of the code was not publicly acknowledged until 1974.
The US Army’s M-209 cipher machine was developed by a Swedish businessman and cryptographer named Boris Hagelin. The cipher machine employed a series of rotors, or disks, joined with a pin-lug system which allowed for the multiple encryption of each character of a message. Used extensively during World War II, its code was cracked by the Germans in 1943. The M-209’s use was limited to strategic battlefield communications and it remained in use into the Korean War.
Modern cipher machines use the power of processing to ensure intelligible encryption and security. Cipher machines now offer additional conveniences that have historically been just out of reach. Encryption and decryption of messages no longer requires the presence of human personnel. In addition, message integrity is now guaranteed and sender authentication is standard, offering a level of confidentiality not previously available.
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