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Definition
Crypto machines are machines for automatic encryption using a composition of mixed alphabet substitutions often performed by means of rotors. Some of the examples are Enigma (Germany), Hebern Electric Code Machine (USA), Typex (Great Britain), SIGABA \(\hat{=}\)M-134-C (USA), and NEMA (Switzerland).
Applications
Rotor: Rotor is a wheel, sitting on an axle and having on both sides a ring of contacts that are internally wired in such a way that they implement a permutation.
The Enigma machine (Figs. 1 and 2) was invented by the German Arthur Scherbius. In 1918, he filed a patent application for an automatic, keyboard-operated electric encryption machine performing a composition of a fixed number of polyalphabetic substitution (Substitutions and Permutations) steps (four in the early commercial models) with shifted mixed alphabets performed by wired keying wheels (called rotors).
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Bauer FL (1997) Decrypted secrets. In: Methods and maxims of cryptology. Springer, Berlin
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Bauer, F.L. (2011). Crypto Machines. In: van Tilborg, H.C.A., Jajodia, S. (eds) Encyclopedia of Cryptography and Security. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4419-5906-5_165
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4419-5906-5_165
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