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WWII Computer vs. Modern Tech in Decrypting Challenge

by Tim Stevens on November 16, 2007 at 10:42 AM

WWII Colossus Faces Modern Tech in Decrypting Challenge1If Switched was around in the 1940's, and if we all had access to highly classified information, we would have been raving about Colossus as the hottest piece of tech in the world. Created in 1943, the vintage computer was about the size of a school bus and relied on wheels and paper tapes for input rather than multi-touch screens and voice recognition. So today it's a bit obsolete, a fact that was sadly proven as it suffered a crushing defeat when faced off against a modern decryption computer.

Colossus was used extensively during World War II by Allied forces to intercept and decrypt German commands and status updates, giving them the information they needed to win the war. It was destroyed at the end of the war to keep its secrets, well, secret. But, in 1994 a U.K. team started a project to rebuild the thing -- a daunting prospect considering they had nothing but photos to go on. Thankfully, the design of the thing left much of its innards open and visible, and the team was able to get Colossus working.

The challenge began yesterday with three encoded messages broadcast by radio from Paderborn, Germany, in an interesting throw-back to the days of WWII. Anyone was free to listen in and try to decrypt the message, and within a few hours a Bonn-based amateur radio operator announced he had decrypted one of the messages using modern decryption software. Meanwhile, unfortunately, the Colossus team was struggling just to get good radio reception so they could start the decryption process. In fact, the machine is still spinning away trying to decipher the messages, and should finish sometime today.

It's no surprise that the pinnacle of 1940's computer technology doesn't stack up to modern stuff. But, you have to admit that Colossus in its exposed form looks a lot more impressive than your typical disposable gadget, even if its functionality is a bit more limited.

From BBC News

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Tags: Colossus, encryption, military, WWII

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