Aktuell ist eine mehrtägige Weltraumsicherheitskonferenz (Space Situational Awareness, SSA) im ESOC in Darmstadt, wo über 250 Experten aus 27 Nationen die verschiedenen Themenbereiche und Projekte in Fachvorträgen vorstellen und diskutieren. Schrott im Orbit ist heute ein wichtiges Thema. Weitere Gefahren drohen der Erde etwa durch Meteoriteneinschläge oder Sonnenstürme (Weltraumwetter). Um die Erde und die irdische…
1957 schoss die UdSSR den ersten Satelliten in den Orbit: Sputnik umkreiste drei Wochen lang den blauen Planeten. Damals war der Weltraum unberührt und schien unendlich, seitdem nimmt die Zahl der künstlichen Erdtrabanten immer schneller zu. Raumfahrt ist heute Alltagsgeschäft – Wettervorhersage, Telekommunikation, Navigation aller Vehikel vom Auto bis zum Mähdrescher oder Frachtschiff und noch…
Yesterday I visited a great crypto exhibition hosted by the German Armed Forces in Feldafing near Munich. I saw many interesting cipher exhibits, as well as a photograph of an encryption machine I had never heard of before. Can a reader help to find out more about this device?
A French magazine article reports on an encrypted diary written by a pedophile priest. The plaintext is not known to me. Can a reader break it?
A recent book mentions a cipher used by a German spy during the Second World War. Can you break a message I encrypted with this method?
A few years ago, German late-night show host Stefan Raab presented a number puzzle in his show “TV total”. It involves cryptography and should be easy to solve for readers of this blog.
Various codebreakers have solved thousands of original Enigma messages from World War II over the last few years. Here’s a message of this kind that is still unsolved. Can my readers help?
In 1921 an encrypted telegram was sent from the Portuguese embassy in Berlin to Lisbon. The plaintext is known, but the encryption method used isn’t. Can a reader help?
HistoCrypt 2019 will take place from June 23-26, 2019 in Mons, Belgium. Here’s the Call for Papers. Apart from scientific papers, non-academic presentations are invited.
Just like every end of year, I am awarding the Golden Alice for outstanding achievements in the field of crypto history and codebreaking. Here are the winners 2018.
