100 Years in Polish

Nicolas T. Courtois University College of , UK Security of Bitcoin Dr. Nicolas T. Courtois 1. cryptologist and codebreaker

2. payment and smart cards (e.g. bank cards, Oyster cards etc…)

2 Security of Bitcoin My Blog http://blog.bettercrypto.com

3 Crypto Currencies LinkedIn

Nicola4 s T. Code Breakers 18th Century Code making and code breaking was done by all major powers.

Famous mathematicians: Pierre de Fermat, Pascal, Goldbach... were code breakers..

5 Nicolas T. Courtois, 2012 Code Breakers All Broken? Example: • At the end of 18th Russia was breaking the codes of virtually all major powers.

• End of 19th century: the same – ONLY Vienna was able to keep their diplomatic communications secret from . – all other countries’ ciphers were broken.

6 Nicolas T. Courtois, 2012 Code Breakers Intelligence Services

Russia and Austro- were leaders in the creation of modern “Military Intelligence”.

[Kahn]

7 Nicolas T. Courtois, 2012 Code Breakers 20th Century Disruptive invention: Radio communication. Initially forbidden or distrusted in the army. But adoption inevitable. Very soon “routine” encryption was needed: • Encryption done as routine job of specialized soldiers: “cipher clerks” and “cipher officers” worked along “radio-operators”.

8 Nicolas T. Courtois, 2012 Code Breakers

History: 1914

• Beginning of WW1: Russians recovered a code book from SMS Magdeburg… • Russia started breaking German codes… – Very close near real-time cooperation with the British intelligence. • Daily keys were broken in 30-90 minutes.

9 Nicolas T. Courtois, 2012 Code Breakers

1917-20: Sudden Decline of Russian Cryptology

• The Tzarist services mostly continued their work with the armies of white generals.

• Red Army reated a new service. • lack of crypto expertise… • In 1918 - 1920 almost all encrypted correspondence of the General Staff and the Soviet Government was easily broken by – the white (counterrevolutionary) armed forces – the British, – the Swedish, – the Polish.

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Austria-Hungary

• Was a real melting pot where many nations mixed… • Herrman Pokorny: – Native German speaker born in Moravia… – Died in 1960 as a general in Hungarian army…

Hermann Pokorny Austria-Hungary leading code breaker and linguist 11 Nicolas T. Courtois, 2012 Code Breakers

Austria-Hungary

• 1914-17: Pokorny+team broke Russian codes so quickly that "for a long time our German allies couldn't believe it," [von Walzel] • Key factor in Central Powers victories over Russia in WW1.

Hermann Pokorny Austria-Hungary leading code breaker and linguist 12 Nicolas T. Courtois, 2012 Code Breakers

Poland

• His cousin maj. Franciszek Pokorny have later headed the Polish … – 1929: taught cryptography to Rejewski, Różycki Zygalski in Poznan

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Austrian-Hungary => Poland

• 1918: Polish state was created. – in no time Poland became the worldwide leader in: • intelligence and clandestine operations • professional radio interception • code breaking – Immense success in War with Russia… • Kowalewski “Won the War”. • Order of the Rising Sun – the highest military award in • - the highest military award in Poland Jan Kowalewski

14 Nicolas T. Courtois, 2012 Code Breakers R&D vs. GDP [source: world bank 2016] • Mongolia 0.2% Pakistan 0.3% Belarus, Bulgaria, 0.70% Poland, Turkey 0.9%, • Brazil, Russia 1.1% 1.4% • Canada, UK 1.6% • Czech Rep. 1.9% China 2.0% • Australia, France, , Estonia 2.3% • Austria 2.7% Germany 2.80% • Sweden 3.2% Japan 3.4% 3.6% • Korea 3.8% Israel 4.1% http://data.worldbank.org/indicator/GB.XPD.RSDV.GD.ZS Code Breakers Bad News Code Breakers

3 June 2016

Jan Kowalewski

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