Fishy Codes: Bletchley's Other Secret - Computerphile

Hitler's High Command didn't use Enigma, they used a faster system called Lorenz, but when Allied forces first encountered it, they had no idea what it was and code-named it 'Tunny' (Tuna). Professor Brailsford explains why this relates to the early days of Computer Science
Next Video in this series: • Zig Zag Decryption - C...
The Professor's Notes:
Undulator Sheet: bit.ly/computerphileundulator
Teleprinter Code: bit.ly/computerphile5holetape
Colossus & Bletchley Park: • Colossus & Bletchley P...
Enigma Playlist: kzread.info?list...
5 Hole Paper Tape: • 5 Hole Paper Tape - Co...
XOR and the Half Adder: • XOR & the Half Adder -...
JPEG DCT: • JPEG DCT, Discrete Cos...
Computer That Changed Everything: • Computer That Changed ...
Inside the Computer (EDSAC): • Inside the Computer (E...
/ computerphile
/ computer_phile
This video was filmed and edited by Sean Riley.
Computer Science at the University of Nottingham: bit.ly/nottscomputer
Computerphile is a sister project to Brady Haran's Numberphile. More at www.bradyharan.com

Пікірлер: 140

  • @oneofspades
    @oneofspades9 жыл бұрын

    Professor Brailsford deserve his own channel.

  • @ScottStruzik
    @ScottStruzik9 жыл бұрын

    I could listen to Brailsford talk about computers for hours.

  • @ztoob8898

    @ztoob8898

    5 жыл бұрын

    Agreed. He's great!

  • @woodywoodlstein9519

    @woodywoodlstein9519

    5 жыл бұрын

    I would have given my left nut to take a course by professor B.

  • @iainwalker8701

    @iainwalker8701

    5 жыл бұрын

    i have listened to him talk for hours over the last few evenings. he is a fantastic story teller and really draws you in to the topic

  • @auntiecarol

    @auntiecarol

    4 жыл бұрын

    Ditto, much to the annoyance of the missus!

  • @tomheynemann8768

    @tomheynemann8768

    3 жыл бұрын

    The David Attenborough of computer documentaries...

  • @tatianatub
    @tatianatub9 жыл бұрын

    decrypt your enemies data with this one weird trick cryptologist hate this guy

  • @oliverutriainen2837

    @oliverutriainen2837

    9 жыл бұрын

    ashley beaumont your text felt good when I read it. thank you for that.

  • @thewhitefalcon8539

    @thewhitefalcon8539

    Жыл бұрын

    Nowadays, unbreakable encryption is common knowledge

  • @axlepacroz
    @axlepacroz9 жыл бұрын

    nice to see another vid about the lorenz machine, fascinating stuff. They worked out how the the machine worked even without seeing one. It's insane, how clever these guys were

  • @aminaleali7161
    @aminaleali71612 жыл бұрын

    What a great story teller! Thank you. When I watch his videos, I feel as though he knows my level of understanding and he's only talking to me.

  • @GoSlash27
    @GoSlash27 Жыл бұрын

    9:00 I really struggled to get my head around this part, so I started playing with it and figured it out. What's happening here is if you use the same key on 2 different plaintext streams to produce cyphertext and then XOR those 2 cyphertext streams together, they will produce the exact same result as if you had XORed the original plaintext streams. So if you can guess the plain text in one stream and then XOR with the common stream it will yield intelligible plaintext in the other. You can use both encrypted streams to decode each other. Once you have a full plain text, you can XOR it with its cyphertext and it yields the key. HTHs, I melted my brain on it.

  • @U014B
    @U014B8 жыл бұрын

    I thought it was going to go more like Dr. Brailsford: "They were called Y-stations." Sean: "Why?" Dr. B: "Yes, that's right."

  • @ThomasNimmesgern

    @ThomasNimmesgern

    8 жыл бұрын

    ;-)

  • @DavidChipman

    @DavidChipman

    8 жыл бұрын

    +Noel Goetowski LOL, shades of "Who's on First".

  • @NPC3.14

    @NPC3.14

    6 жыл бұрын

    Wi?

  • @ZekeRaiden
    @ZekeRaiden3 жыл бұрын

    I'm super late to the party on this one (re-watching this video for the zillionth time), but apparently the "Y-Service" (from which the stations got their name) were monitoring wireless traffic, so "y" was short for "wireless." (Much as we shorten it to "wi-fi" today.)

  • @gasgas2689
    @gasgas26895 жыл бұрын

    They were called Y stations because Y is the quick way of saying WI stations - Wireless Intercept stations. Also a lot of traffic was broadcast by radio because the French Resistance were busy blowing up telegraph poles and cutting telephone lines. They did this specifically to force communications to be sent by radio, which can easily be intercepted.

  • @michaelwoodhams7866
    @michaelwoodhams78666 жыл бұрын

    The Japanese codes were book based rather than machine based, and had code books (changed every so often) and a big book of 'random' numbers (also changed every so often) which were used as an additive cypher on top of the codes. The issue of depth with additive cyphers was much more prominent in the Pacific cryptanalysis. The additive cypher book was short enough compared to total traffic to build up considerable depth, but whereas for Tunny the layer under the cypher was plaintext, in the Pacific it was code words, so depth alone did not solve the problem.

  • @charlesmiller000
    @charlesmiller0003 жыл бұрын

    Hooray! Professor Brailsford continues on from Enigma & Colossus. Personally, as a computer scientist, I am scarfing up everything he puts on KZread. Thank you!

  • @Mohamed.GadAllah

    @Mohamed.GadAllah

    11 ай бұрын

    May you add the videos you find for him on a playlist and share it with all of us.

  • @bborkzilla
    @bborkzilla3 жыл бұрын

    According to Jack Copeland's book "Colossus" Bletchley was known as "Station X" because it was the 10th of several stations set up by MI6, all of which were assigned Roman numbers.

  • @terapode
    @terapode5 жыл бұрын

    Professor Brailsford´s body language is so amazing. He comunicates not only with words but also with his mannerism.

  • @RoamingAdhocrat

    @RoamingAdhocrat

    5 жыл бұрын

    and in encrypted morse code from his eye blinks

  • @RMoribayashi
    @RMoribayashi6 жыл бұрын

    Radio teletype AKA RTTY has been a popular mode for radio amateurs since the 1950's. A few experienced RTTY operators can actually convert the warbling tone to words by ear. It's similar to decoding fast Morse code where entire words are recognised by their unique sound.

  • @AgnostosGnostos
    @AgnostosGnostos3 жыл бұрын

    Tommy Flowers, the creator of Colossus first electronic computers died in 1998. Yes in 1998 long after the end of the Soviet era and during the expansion of internet in every home. It was a serious mistake that he wasn't Knighted. W. T. Tutte (Bill Tutte) died, another important person of the Colossus mentioned at 6:55 died even later in 2002 and wasn't knighted either.

  • @Quimbyrbg
    @Quimbyrbg9 жыл бұрын

    Fantastic stuff, I am loving your coverage of WW2 cryptography. The Colossus team surely did miss out on the admiration they deserve.

  • @BTHobbies
    @BTHobbies9 жыл бұрын

    This series is so cool! Thanks for keeping these coming!

  • @TommiHimberg
    @TommiHimberg9 жыл бұрын

    Prof Brailsford's excellent explanations of codes and ciphers continue. Now we start to delve into how the Lorentz system worked, and how codebreakers in Bletchley Park broke it.

  • @magter3001
    @magter30019 жыл бұрын

    Just found this channel, and boy am I happy I did. :)

  • @CalMariner
    @CalMariner3 жыл бұрын

    Watching this in rapt attention - his storytelling is amazing, and the history of the incredible minds behind these codes is fascinating!

  • @Wamfox
    @Wamfox8 жыл бұрын

    Love it, slippage like you have never dreamed of in your worst nightmares

  • @OnlyUseMeEquip
    @OnlyUseMeEquip7 жыл бұрын

    the david attenborough of code

  • @dankswtf
    @dankswtf9 жыл бұрын

    Love these videos, very fascinating :)

  • @dbatdev
    @dbatdev9 жыл бұрын

    Ace storytelling. Can't wait for the next tale.

  • @alizaidanthamyeez740
    @alizaidanthamyeez740 Жыл бұрын

    Once when I was playing Minecraft and creating redstone creations I was getting bored with the normal stuff and I got the idea of using logic gates to encrypt characters. After theorizing, creating and testing the redstone machine I used it for quite a while and then I watched this video and found out that I, without realizing ended up creating a Vernam cipher

  • @Mendelmandela
    @Mendelmandela10 ай бұрын

    We need this brilliant Professor here in Kenya at the university of Nairobi school of computer science

  • @dacramac3487
    @dacramac34873 жыл бұрын

    They were called Y-Stations because it was a sort of pun on the initials of Wireless Interceptors (WI with the I pronounced as eye).

  • @sclabhailordofnoplot2430
    @sclabhailordofnoplot24305 жыл бұрын

    So Y stations were British signals intelligence names for Radio sites. X for Bletchley was according to google sources for it being the tenth Y site built.

  • @DrysonBennington1
    @DrysonBennington15 жыл бұрын

    Y Stations = two electrical inputs that create a single electrical current that is then divided again at the end source to create the desired letter or number based on what else? Wheels with two sets of dials for each set similar to the Enigma machine had. Y + X = YX or WhyEx or Wix. Two Y's pushed together create an X with the tail forming in the middle to create a W path accept the tail of the Y creates two Right Triangles. So Y and X have the same meaning mirrored 90 degrees to the other.

  • @stevem9529

    @stevem9529

    2 жыл бұрын

    I think its just short for WIreless

  • @linkVIII
    @linkVIII9 жыл бұрын

    My proffesors are fine but I much rather listen to Brailsford

  • @Tactical_Hotdog

    @Tactical_Hotdog

    9 жыл бұрын

    linkviii I bet they'd be impressed that you can't even spell "Professors".

  • @linkVIII

    @linkVIII

    9 жыл бұрын

    Tactical Hotdog Who in cs cares about spelling?

  • @intelX1000

    @intelX1000

    9 жыл бұрын

    +linkviii Everyone. English is the most commonly known high-level programming language.

  • @linkVIII

    @linkVIII

    9 жыл бұрын

    :^) Snowman Face With A Caret For A Nose :^) Turns out the word professor isn't used much in technical writing. Though my lecturer in my tech writing is incredibly picky on word choice.

  • @Angloth

    @Angloth

    8 жыл бұрын

    Its in fact so high level - that youre acctualy not reqwired to wright it cerroctly iN odrer for u 2 understen

  • @MaxJNorman
    @MaxJNorman9 жыл бұрын

    Up there with James Grime and Ed Copeland in my opinion. Great guy.

  • @TheSlimyDog
    @TheSlimyDog9 жыл бұрын

    I love learning about the history and stuff but I'd prefer to hear a bit more about how this stuff worked and what those vulnerabilities were and how they were cracked.

  • @seanski44

    @seanski44

    9 жыл бұрын

    That's all coming!

  • @compu85

    @compu85

    8 жыл бұрын

    +Sean Riley Was the follow up to this posted?

  • @roderik1990

    @roderik1990

    8 жыл бұрын

    +compu85 It's the Zig Zag Decryption video.

  • @ImSquiggs
    @ImSquiggs6 жыл бұрын

    I fell down a Computerphile hole two weeks ago and I'm still not out of it

  • @grn1

    @grn1

    3 жыл бұрын

    I think it's been a month for me.

  • @seamusandpat
    @seamusandpat9 жыл бұрын

    Brilliant again, I love these histories. More please. :D

  • @jibberjabberman
    @jibberjabberman9 жыл бұрын

    fantastic!

  • @buck7271
    @buck72718 жыл бұрын

    so wait, wheres the second video?????? where?

  • @GoldViolinFlutist
    @GoldViolinFlutist9 жыл бұрын

    I wonder if people used multiple factor cryptography, like for example, scrambling a message with enigma and then sending that via tunny code

  • @cigmorfil4101
    @cigmorfil41016 жыл бұрын

    BP was called station X as it was the tenth such place, the others were Station I, Station II, ..., Station IX (the station number being in Roman numerals).

  • @Starchface
    @Starchface9 жыл бұрын

    Funny thing-I just finished a can of tuna. Coincidence? I think not. I imagine Professor Brailsford spent years or decades teaching so it does not surprise me that he is so good at this. Presumably he is retired, so you can continue to mine that massive brain for years to come.

  • @BlurryBit
    @BlurryBit3 жыл бұрын

    Wish I had a grandpa like this. Pretty much the big picture to what I am aspiring to be for the last 12 years. :D

  • @RobinWootton
    @RobinWootton5 ай бұрын

    Terrific

  • @EuroCrisis2012
    @EuroCrisis20128 жыл бұрын

    Why were the radio signal collection stations called the Y service? Here is the answer. It is the British sense of humor. They were collecting "WIreless". The "Wi" became "Y".

  • @Cygnus0lor

    @Cygnus0lor

    7 жыл бұрын

    Actually, it was Wireless Interception (WI) towers. But overall yeah true. Funny innit?

  • @EtzEchad
    @EtzEchadАй бұрын

    With modern technology, you could make a Vernon cipher (actually a code) which doesn't repeat for billions of bytes. Of course, you would have to find a secure way to transmit the code disk to the recipient. The thing is about codes, is that they are unbreakable if you don't use the same code string. (I'm sure that this technique is standard today. I do know that very little encrypted traffic is broken nowadays.)

  • @Bograff
    @Bograff9 жыл бұрын

    Is there a reason they couldn't reprint the 2 tapes at 5:20 onto a single 10 hole tape so they don't lose synchronization?

  • @avro549B

    @avro549B

    8 жыл бұрын

    +Bograff That would have needed a supply of the double-width tape, and the hardware to handle it. It probably wouldn't have been very economic to create that infrastructure just for encryption, though I suppose cash-register tapes might have been used. (The 5-track stuff would have been produced in enormous quantities for routine applications.) Technical developments are often shaped by what's cheaply or conveniently available. E.g. early punched cards were the same size and shape as $ bills, because there were already dollar-bill handling machines.

  • @DrRChandra
    @DrRChandra9 жыл бұрын

    Just a little trivia: If you look at the filename of the APK for Android's Dolphin Browser, it looks like at one time it was called "Tunny."

  • @UberAlphaSirus
    @UberAlphaSirus9 жыл бұрын

    Great stuff, just as good or better than the bbc radio 4 sitcom. :)

  • @anthonyfrancis-jones7059
    @anthonyfrancis-jones70599 жыл бұрын

    Y Stations... (listening stations), sure this is a long shot but it is rather nice that the electrical symbol for an antenna is very similar to a Y. Just a coincidence I guess.

  • @spyguy318
    @spyguy3189 жыл бұрын

    This reminds me of Number Stations. These Tunny Transmissions were the first number stations!

  • @ohgosh5892

    @ohgosh5892

    3 жыл бұрын

    The enigma stations were the first number stations, lorenz was second.

  • @World_Theory
    @World_Theory8 жыл бұрын

    I need more tunny. I don't eat enough of it.

  • @joe564338
    @joe5643389 жыл бұрын

    This guy rocks

  • @lauriepocock3066
    @lauriepocock30664 жыл бұрын

    Please can somebody clarify for me. My understanding is 1)you add the chi (constantly changing) to the plain test, but the Germans were concerned that this result could give to many consecutive dots and plus's so- 2) they added a second stage set of wheels (psi) that only change depending on the result of exclusive or(ing) PT to chi.

  • @5hape5hift3r
    @5hape5hift3r5 жыл бұрын

    why not multiple shorter encryption keys that are all coprime length

  • @davidcreagh
    @davidcreagh5 жыл бұрын

    I seem to remember that the sorts of antennas that the "Y Stations" used looked like a letter Y.

  • @U014B
    @U014B8 жыл бұрын

    +ProfDaveB Wait, are you the man who narrated for "Look Around You" (first season/"series")?

  • @spiros1994
    @spiros19949 жыл бұрын

    The professor has affected and influenced I guess by the current situation in Greece and uses it for example :-D

  • @RoelfvanderMerwe
    @RoelfvanderMerwe9 жыл бұрын

    This guy is so sweet. I love him!

  • @gonzo_the_great1675
    @gonzo_the_great16753 жыл бұрын

    BP had a Y station. Station number 10. X in roman numerals. Hence station X.

  • @BEP0
    @BEP09 жыл бұрын

    Nice.

  • @iabervon
    @iabervon9 жыл бұрын

    One of my problem sets in school had us decrypt a pair of documents XORed with the same random sequence. It was rather disturbingly easy.

  • @ohgosh5892

    @ohgosh5892

    3 жыл бұрын

    Maybe you should tell the Bletchley crowd how easy it is.

  • @iabervon

    @iabervon

    3 жыл бұрын

    @@ohgosh5892 As he says, they found decrypting the pair they got really easy, and they were particularly looking for the Germans to make that mistake because they knew it would be easy to decrypt.

  • @raijinmeister
    @raijinmeister8 жыл бұрын

    And people thinks the Eletronic Warfare,is something new.

  • @jack002tuber
    @jack002tuber7 жыл бұрын

    At 9:07 you said the additives have a weakness. If your key is several thousand bytes, that should eliminate that.

  • @DzheiSilis

    @DzheiSilis

    7 жыл бұрын

    jack002tuber Have fun doing that in 1940's tech

  • @jack002tuber

    @jack002tuber

    7 жыл бұрын

    Its easy in 2016 tech, I live in 2016

  • @jack002tuber

    @jack002tuber

    7 жыл бұрын

    Google ONE TIME PAD, they did it in 1940

  • @TheNikiNeu
    @TheNikiNeu9 жыл бұрын

    Damn it

  • @BillDavies-ej6ye
    @BillDavies-ej6yeАй бұрын

    Station Y = WI = wireless interception.

  • @woutervandervoort9088
    @woutervandervoort90889 жыл бұрын

    lol , sound like : x is receiving and sending and y is only sending station ,

  • @msimon6808
    @msimon68085 жыл бұрын

    The Americans actually had a one time tape machine. SIGTOT. So the tape problem was not insurmountable.

  • @AbdiPianoChannel
    @AbdiPianoChannel6 жыл бұрын

    Very impressive. It's James bond thing

  • @LAPGOCHINSTRUCTOR
    @LAPGOCHINSTRUCTOR5 жыл бұрын

    Y stations got their name derived from Wireless Interception (WI)

  • @RoamingAdhocrat

    @RoamingAdhocrat

    5 жыл бұрын

    why?

  • @oracleofottawa
    @oracleofottawa9 жыл бұрын

    First lesson that you learn as a naval "sparker" NEVER SHRED THAT PLASTIC TAPE!! LOL...

  • @tschak909
    @tschak9099 жыл бұрын

    Lorenz cipher attachment for a teleprinter...

  • @spiros1994
    @spiros19949 жыл бұрын

    Maybe they called them "Y" stations because of the antenna symbol which is like a "Y".

  • @Patmorgan235Us

    @Patmorgan235Us

    9 жыл бұрын

    spiroslouis1 or y = x + suff

  • @sundhaug92

    @sundhaug92

    9 жыл бұрын

    spiroslouis1 Would be too easy to guess. I'm presuming it's named from the reverse alphabet (first would be Z, second Y, third X and so on)

  • @owenwilliams9666

    @owenwilliams9666

    9 жыл бұрын

    spiroslouis1 I think I heard somewhere that the 'Y' in Y stations was a corruption of 'W'ireless stations. Bletchley Park was called Station 'X' as it was the 10th station so named.

  • @RoamingAdhocrat
    @RoamingAdhocrat5 жыл бұрын

    You don't know Y?

  • @chasemarangu
    @chasemarangu7 жыл бұрын

    At 0:09 literally, the enigma lol! not figuratively like a puzzle.

  • @chasemarangu

    @chasemarangu

    7 жыл бұрын

    At 1:40 lol I can't do that noise

  • @wyrmhand
    @wyrmhand8 жыл бұрын

    Next part is Zig Zag Decryption

  • @bernardusmuller1109
    @bernardusmuller11095 жыл бұрын

    People that don't know how important Cryptocurrencies are should watch this.

  • @therugburnz
    @therugburnz6 жыл бұрын

    Oh yes they are. Circa ww2

  • @massimookissed1023
    @massimookissed10238 жыл бұрын

    Two words: Linear Feedback Shift Register

  • @demonetizeddemonetisedinmy1890

    @demonetizeddemonetisedinmy1890

    7 жыл бұрын

    but that's four

  • @Haerton

    @Haerton

    4 жыл бұрын

    @@demonetizeddemonetisedinmy1890 Two words: 'Feedback'

  • @rjfaber1991
    @rjfaber19919 жыл бұрын

    That's quite funny then, that both Enigma and Lorenz were ultimately broken because of lazy Nazi operators...

  • @Quimbyrbg

    @Quimbyrbg

    9 жыл бұрын

    +Robert Faber Always remember to explain to your staff why rules exist, otherwise they won't know why they should follow them.

  • @cigmorfil4101

    @cigmorfil4101

    5 жыл бұрын

    The Lorentz definurely, but Enigma was usually cracked due to Enigma's design and use of cribs, usually derived from military protocol. The problem with Enigma was that no letter could encrypt to itself (caused by the physical mechanism itself). The wheels and their wiring was well known. To crack Enigma the boffins took then encrypted stream and tried a crib; from this a "menu" was generated which was fed into a "bombe" which was loaded with all permutations of the known wheels and then run to find what setting would create the crypt from the plaintext - effectively running 30 enigma machines (each one set up in every possible permutation) in parallel. With Enigma the laziness dramatically reduced the time to decrypt as the key was effectively given. The navy enigma used 4 wheels instead of 3 from a larger pool of wheels. Also grabbed was the setting sheets so it reduced the amount required to find the key.

  • @jeroenkluskens
    @jeroenkluskens9 жыл бұрын

    V.v.V

  • @dannygjk
    @dannygjk6 жыл бұрын

    I bet almost zero people these days know anything about codes and ciphers.

  • @MrTgaffaney
    @MrTgaffaney9 жыл бұрын

    First

  • @NPC3.14

    @NPC3.14

    6 жыл бұрын

    First reply to first comment!

  • @arrancockroft2834
    @arrancockroft28348 жыл бұрын

    Compute .., 😂

  • @arrancockroft2834
    @arrancockroft28348 жыл бұрын

    F b shy ha ha

  • @gummipalle
    @gummipalle9 жыл бұрын

    Do we really need all this war junk? I feel like I get enough of that everywhere else... Surely there are some computer related subjects that dont have to involve millions and millions of deaths and global domination and all that boring crap... -I mean, we've already had plenty of enigma stuff... Cant we leave those things to the war-guys? There are already thousands of channels for that....

  • @MichaelMedlock

    @MichaelMedlock

    8 жыл бұрын

    +Frabbledabble "war junk"? This is computer science through and through, put in historical context...

  • @MichaelMedlock

    @MichaelMedlock

    8 жыл бұрын

    Frabbledabble Computerphile has dozens of videos that have nothing to do with war. Not to mention, death camps? There's not one mention of death camps...

  • @malisa71

    @malisa71

    8 жыл бұрын

    +Frabbledabble No. And the war-stuff will get even better because humans do not change, so there will be another war where after it technology will change.

  • @malisa71

    @malisa71

    8 жыл бұрын

    Ok. Fair enough. So why did you watch a video about "hitlers enigma" ?

  • @MichaelMedlock

    @MichaelMedlock

    8 жыл бұрын

    Frabbledabble You're free to not care. But wars *do* happen, and ignoring them does not change that fact. Learning from them helps to prevent them however.