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1 CE
Caesar Cipher
Created by Julius Caesar this is the earliest form of the cipher. This cipher was used to deliver messages to military personnel. This form of encryption uses plain letter text and shifts the letters over a certain number of letters up or down the alphabet to decode the message. -
853
Birth of Cryptanalysis
Al-Kindi discovered a method of cryptanalysis called frequency analysis. This involves calculating the percentages of letters of a particular language in plain text, the percentages of letters in a cipher, and then substituting the symbols for the letters who have an equal percentage of occurances. -
1058
Bi, Sheng invents movable type
Bi Sheng invented the first movable type printing out of clay. He carved individual clay characters on identical pieces of clay. These pieces could be moved and placed anywhere to print. The pieces could be put away for further use. This method spread across Asia and later into Europe where the printing press was developed. Movable type printing is an important component of cryptography. -
1379
First Example of Nomenclator
Gabrieli di Lavinde put together a list of substitution alphabet and small code -
1518
First Printed book on Cryptography
Johannes Trithemius wrote the first printed book on cryptology, he also invented the steganographic cipher. -
Thomas Jefferson Wheel Cipher
Thomas Jefferson invented a wheel cipher to be used to send messages while he was America's minister to France. Thomas Jefferson's cipher had 36 cylindrical wood pieces threaded onto an iron spindle. It is not known if Thomas Jefferson ever used this. -
Charles Babbage method for breaking polyalphabetic ciphers
Charles Babbage discovered a method to allow a cryptanalyst to deduct the keyword used in the polyaphabetic substiution cipher. -
Charles Babbage broke Vigenere's autokey cipher
Charles Babbage broke what was considered an unbreakable cipher at the time Vignere's autokey cipher by using frequency analysis created by Al-Kindi. Babbage also broke the much weaker cipher. -
Dreyfus Affair
Captain Charles Dreyfus of the French Army was convicted of Treason. They suspected him of giving military secrets to German or Italian officials. After Captain Charles Dreyfus's arrest the Italian military attache, Colonel Alessandro Oanizzardi sent a cryptogram to Rome that sparked a controversy that allowed Captain Charles Dreyfus to eventually be released from prison with full reinstatement, and the Legion of Honour. -
William (Wolfe) Friedman introduced mathematics to cryptography
William Friedman introduced mathematics and scientific methods to cryptography. His works helped to further information systems security, signals intelligence, and works done by the NSA. -
Break of Japan's Purple Machine
United States team SIS broke the Purple Cipher by analzying and studying the mistakes on frequencies made by the Japanese. Genevieve Grotian found a correlation that helped to break the code. -
Velvalee Dickinson Doll Woman Convicted
Velvalee Dickinson was convicted of treason. Cryptanalyst Elizabeth Friedman diecphered code within letters written by Mrs. Dickinson. -
KL-7 rotor machine founded by US National Security Agency
The KL-7 has rotors that encrypt text in a complex pattern controlled by notched rings. -
John Anthony Walker Sells KL-7 information to Soviet Union
John Anthony Walker became a spy for the Soviet Union and was later convicted in 1985. The discovery of this information lead to the removal of the KL-7 from service. -
Master key for high bandwidth digital content protection is recovered abd published
Sony Playstation 3 game console's master key and private signing key are recovered and published using cryptoanalystic attacks.
