Enigma machine
Nazi code apparatus
The Enigma machine was a cipher device used by Nazi Germany during World War II to encrypt military communications.
Its complex system of rotors and plugboards generated codes the Germans believed unbreakable.
British cryptanalysts at Bletchley Park, building on earlier Polish work, cracked Enigma—a breakthrough widely credited with shortening the war.
The Enigma machine now symbolizes both ingenious encryption and the triumph of codebreaking.
- rotorsSpinning airfoil assemblies
- plugboardSocket panel for routing connections
- cipherHidden writing system
- cryptanalysisStudy of breaking ciphers
- Vigenère cipherEncryption using repeating keyword
code · encryption · encrypted communications · substitution · naval intelligence · codebreaking · cryptography · wartime · cracked · German · Nazi · war effort · scramble · transmission · intercept · wheels · Allies · secret
- secret codescipher, secret code, secret codes, code word, password
- cipherscipher, Caesar cipher, substitution cipher, ciphertext, plaintext
- codebreaking toolscipher key, Colossus, codebook, decryption key, rotor
- military signalsflag signals, salute, hand salute, signalman, signaler
- WWII inventionsradar, jeep, penicillin, atomic bomb, V-2 rocket
- security hardwaresecurity chip, security token, hardware wallet, cold wallet, smart card
Enigma machineColossus
Immense statue or figure
Ultra · Bletchley Park · decipher · Alan Turing · Turing machine