The code-breakers
legacy
The code-breaking
methods used in the Second World War seem very old-fashioned to
us. But the work at Bletchley Park led directly to the development
of the computers we use today.
The computing
power of the room-sized Colossus can now be put into a Pentium
microprocessor no bigger than your thumb.
Modern computers
can create incredibly complicated codes. These can only be broken
by other computers thousands of times more powerful than Colossus.
The codes which
protect the security of vast networks such as banking systems
and the Internet were thought to be unbreakable. But computer
hackers have already found their way into these systems.
For more information
on the Bletchley Park Trust visit their website.
Archive photographs
of Bletchley Park kindly provided by the Bletchley Park Trust.
Find
out more about Dr. Tommy Flowers on the BBC's
H2G2 website
Visit the Wikipedia Cryptography portal for full information.
Find
out more about Alan Turing on the BBC's
History website
Visit
the Nova Codebreaking
site - includes a detailed look at codebreaking in the
Second World War, an interactive Enigma machine that enables you
to send coded messages, and a section on how Enigma actually works.
Visit
the British
Bombe rebuild project website for an update on how the
project is progressing.
