REF ID:A40399 

SECURITY CLASSIFICATION (J/anl/) 

DISPOSITION FORM COMl"f'.BEN'fIM:i 

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1 

FILE NO SUBJECT Open source mention of use of electronic 

TO 

SEC 

Attn: Mr. Lanham 

computers in cryptography 

FROM PROD-0411 DATE 8 October 1957 COMMEN 

H Levenson B578/RL.1LJ. 

1. In re your request for previous mentions in open source material of the use 

of electronic computers in cryptography, the .following items are sub:mJ..tted. 

An article appearing in U.S. News and World Report, 22 October 19541 p. 121 

discusses former NSA employee, Joseph S. Petersen, Jr., and the agency for 

which he worked. It mentions that "a maJor job of the agency that employed 

Mr. Petersen for 13 years is to break foreign codes, a job in which it uses 

electronic 'bra.in' devices. 11 

Mr. John Kobler, writing in Colliers, 28 October 19501 p. 48, on the subject of cryptography, states that "there is a poss1b11J.ty that the electronic principles of our giant mathematical calculators can be adapted to 

cryptography." 

s/s FRANCIS A RUPP 

Chief, PROD-0411 

Declassified and approved for release by NSA on 09-25-2013 pursuant to E.O. 1352e 

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DD I ~~~M50 9 6 REPLACES NME FORM 1111 I OCT 48 WHICH MAY IE USED 111-"801-t * ¥ I 80VUHINT .. INTIM• 
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REF ID:A40399 

" 

Open source mention or use of electronic 

computers in cryptography 

PROD-Ci.ill S October 1957 

H Levenson B578/Rbl41 

Attni Mr. Lanham 

1. In re your reoueat for previous mentions in open source material of the use 

~ or electronic c01"1puters in cryptography, the following items are submitted. ... - + ~ 

' An article appearing in U.S. Newe and World Report, 22 October 1954, P• 12, 

discusses former N3A employee, Joseph s. Petersen, Jr., and the agency ror ~ wtilch he worked. It mentions that "a Jt!B. JOr job or the agency that employed 

Mr. Petersen for 13 years is to break foreign codes, a job in which it uses 

- electronic 'brain' devices. 11 

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Mr. John Kobler, 1ol?'iting in Colliers, 28 October 19501 p. 48, on the subject of cryptography, states that "there is a possibility that the electrom.c pr:mciples of our g:lant mathematical calculators can be adapted to 

CI""JPtography." ~ 

S/S FRANCIS A RUPP 

Chier, PROD-OL.11 

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REF ID:A40399 

_Fr~1d_a_v_,_s_e_p_te_m_b_e_r_2_0_, __ 19_5_7 ______________________________ _::_:rHi~E::::......:::S~TARS At 

Giant Brains Playing It Cool on Boardv 

Enter Secret 

Coding World Br North Amer1car Newspaper Alhance 

WASHINGTON-Giant machines 

have moved into the secret m1hta:ry 

world of codes and ciphers The 

electronic brains can turn a message into g1bber1sh as fast as a man can type • 

At the recel\ mg end another 

machine can ungarble the secret 

message as fast as 1t can print. 

And chances that the enemy will 

be able to figure out the message ID time to use the information are slight-unless some human has 

goofed 

But humans are humans 

An expert in the field says 

''There can be devised a theoretical machine system that can be 

mathematically demonstrated as unbreakable-a svstem w1th such an incredible 01 der of complexity 

that there is never a repeat in it " 

By a Hrepeat the expert means that the same signal is used more than once to stand for the same word or letter m the message 

Machines Offer Time I 

But the machines have not fundamentally changed what the ex-1 

perts call the art of cryptography 

(putting message in codes or ciphers) or of cryptanalysis (breaking codes and ciphers ) Says one "What the machines give us ls 

time and an extremely high num- ber Of variables approaching in· 

flnlty" 

The complexity of the machine 

systems means that no such sy&-

tem can be broken by a potential 

enemy that does not have ma- chines But the electronic theory 

behind the. umts is common knowledge and e\erybody who is anybody now has machines 

As one e"l:pert put 1t 

"In this field the offense and 

defense stay about equal Five 

hundred years ago 1t was pencils 

against pencils now, it s machines 

against maclunes " 

Always Human Error 

How are Cr) ptograpluc systems ever broken? 

One method is to Jump on a human error Example The Secretary of State 

hands a diplomatic note to the 

ambassador of the land of Poo He 

sends 1t to his home government in 

code rather than • ID the clear" 

The cryptanalyst has the origmal 

text By compaung 1t with the 

gibberish sent by the ambassador 

he can break the system 

Another example '!'he operator 

of a mach1De s;i. stem 1s ordered at 

intervals to "pull a switch" that 

changes the system If he forgets, 

the momtormg ~nemy may get some repeats That g1\ es him mes- sages to decipher 1n what the ex- perts call "depth ' With the help 

of the machines the Sl-stem can then ba broken 
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REF ID:A40399 

- CONFIDf: NTlAL 

NATIONAL SECURITY AGENCY 

Washington 25, D.C. 

TITLE• "Giant Brains Enter Secret Coding World" Character of Case 

Possible ComproIIll.se of 

Classified Information 

Report made at 

Washington, D.C. 

Synopsis 

Period Covered 

lu 7, 9, 10 Oct 57 

Report Ma.de by 

Thomas T. Lanman 

An~article entitled 11Giant Brains Enter Secret Coding World" 

appeared in the 20 Sep 57 European edition of the Stars and Stripes. 

The Agency was informed by message from Europe by Wilham F. Friedman. 

Inquiry reflected article was written by David L. BARNETT, syndicated 

colunmist with the North American Newspaper Alliance, Washington, D.C. 

Evaluation by PROD-03 and PROD-0441 reflected that the information 

appearing in the article is within the public domain and would not be 

classified. Special Operations Division, SEC, contemplates no further 

inquiry in this matter. 

Distribution: 

Routing: SEC-1 

occ 

In els: Copy of Art. ( dup) 

20 Sep 57 

D/F from PROD-0441 

dtd 8 Oct 57 

Copy of deletions by 

Stars and stripes. 
... 

REF ID:A40399 

CONFIEif-2 r~'i IALI 

"Giant Brains Enter Secret Coding World" 

stars and Stripes, Suropean Edition 

An inquiry was conducted regarding an article entitled "Giant 

Brains E:nter Secret Coding World" which appeared on the 20 Sep 57 

European edition or the Stars and Stripes, to deternu.ne who wrote 

the article, the writers source (s) and/or the disclosure of classified information. A reproduced copy or the article is attached to 

this report as inclosure (1). 

On 7 Oct 571 a copy or the article was transIDJ.tted to Francis 

A. RUPP, Chief PROD-0441, for an official evaluation or the l.Ilf'ormation contained in the articles. RUPP advised that sJ.mJ.lar information 

has appeared in the public press. RUPP stated that it is his opinion 

the information contained in the article is WJ..thin the public domain, 

and therefore would not be classified. A D/F from PROD-0441 dated 

8 Oct 57, subJect: Open source mention• of use of electronic computers 

in crypto~aphy, citing publ.J..cation or articles relative to the article appearing in the Stars and Stripes, is attached as inclosure (2). 

Dr. Robert H. SHAW, Chief PROD-03, concurred WJ.th RUPP on the evaluation of the information contained in the newspaper article. 

On 9 Oct 571 Ned AXTEIJ.. Jr., Chief CERF-111 was interviewed. 

AXTELL advised that CERF-11 received a request from the AdJutant 

General (AG) on or about 18 Sep 57, for a copy 0£ the 20 Sep 57 European edition 0£ the Stars and Stripes. AXTELL stated that William 

F. FRIEDMAN sent a message from Europe to H. C. BARLOW, R/D Consultant, 

mentioning the Stars and Stripes article and that AG requested the 

paper when the message came through AG. AXTELL stated that CREF-11 

also received a request for the paper from BARLOW. AXTEIJ.. advised 

they obtained a copy of the 20 Sep 57 edition from the G2, Pentagon, 

and forwarded reproductions of the article to the AG and BARLOW. 

AXTELL advised that Hohn NICHOLLS, 6ERF-11, Liaison Representative to the Navy and State Departments, contacted the North American 

Newspaper Alliance~ (NANA), Room 900, National Press Building, and was 

in£ormed that the article appearing in the Stars and S~ripes does not 

appear in its entirety. The NANA provided NICHOLLS WJ..th that part of 

the article deleted from the Stars and Stripes edition. The deletion 

was three paragraphs, a line ("The information was suppl.J..ed by top 

Government code experts, whose names cannot be divulged"), and the 

.name of the writer, David L. BARNETT, a syndicated columnist with NANA. 

A copy of this information is attached to this report as inclosure (3). ~AXTELL advised a check 0£ the Washington area telephone book reflected 

that David L. BARNETT is listed as residing at 3o6 Beachwood Road, 

Alexandria, Va., telephone number SO 5-6566 and also as a correspondent 

WJ..th offices in the National Press Building, telephone number ME 8-6860. ~ AXTELL stated it is not known if this article has appeared in any other 

publication. 
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REF ID:A40399 

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On 9 Oct 57, John NICHOLLS, CER.F-11, who obtained the informations from NANA, was interviewed. NICHOLLS advised he went to 

BARNETT1 s office to attempt to gaJ..n further information regarding 

BARNETT's sources. NICHOLLS said BARNETT was not in the office but 

called while he was there. He said he talked to BARNETT on the 

telephone, representing hJ.mself as a. member of a Cryptogram Club 

who was interested in obtaining speakers for the club meetings, and 

a.sked if BARNETT could put him in contact with the "government experts" mentioned l.ll the article. NICHOLLS advised that BARNETT cut 

the conversation short stating that he (BARNETT) could not divulge 

the names of his sources. 

Special Operations DJ.vision, SEC, contemplates no further 

investigation in this matter. 

CLOSED 

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By David L. Barnett 

The 1nforma.t1on was suppll.ed by top Government code experts, whose names 

cannot be devulged. 

Another method lll what the experts call an "exhaustion attack". Ea.ch element 

in the original language in whl.ch the clear message was "Written. The machines 

• can make mi.l~ions pf such comparisons until the cryptogram makes sense. By 

that time, the sender has "pulled a switch 11 and the process starts all over 

again. 

In other cases, fake messages are used. Suppose an enemy is informing 

its forces of the disposition of ships around some place that in code they 

call "J:unmy". The cryptographers think 11Ji.rmny" mJ.ght be the code name for 

Hawaii but are not sure. So a fake message is put out about the dispatch 

of a battleship to Hawaii. Sure enough, the enemy lllforms its forces of 

the dispatch the dispatch of a battle ship to "J1Il'lll1Y• n The cryprographe1•s 

then lmew "JllDIIIY" is Hawa.:i.i. 

SometJ.llles, the experience and intuition of cryptographers does the 

, job. As one expert put it: 

"I have seen people look at a stream of numbers and say, 1 I bet that is 

I 

'a five digit cipher run on a muli:.iplex.' So we try it on the Multiplex: -

irmich is one type of ma.chine - and by gosh,, that's exactly what it is. 11 

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