Overview
Fish Consumption Outside Bletchley Park ,The Secret Swedish Triumph of WWII
When we think of World War II codebreaking, Bletchley Park dominates the narrative. However, a massive parallel cryptographic drama was unfolding in Scandinavia. Join renowned historian and cryptology expert Marek Grajek as he explores the spectacular, forgotten story of the Swedish breakthrough against the Third Reich’s strategic cipher machine, the Geheimschreiber.
This presentation will systematically trace the unique history, mathematical triumphs, and geopolitical consequences of this parallel codebreaking front, walking through the 13 critical elements of the breakthrough:
Was Bletchley Park really the only centre for Fish codebreaking? Fish species: Sturgeon and Tunny.
The history of the Geheimschreiber’s development. How to circumvent patent laws, and to what extent does circumventing them affect the security of the cipher?
Operation Weserübung as a response to Allied plans for operations in Scandinavia and the compromises resulting from it.
Were mathematicians really as useless in cryptology as Alastair Denniston believed? The Swedish cryptanalyst training programme before the outbreak of the Second World War.
Arne Beurling: mathematician and man.
How did the Geheimschreiber work, and to what extent did the structure of the cipher make it easier to break?
A tapped telegraph cable offers the Swedes the opportunity to monitor German communications.
A reconstruction of Beurling’s attack on the Geheimschreiber ciphers.
The cryptographers’ successes and errors in managing decryption.
A repeat of the Enigma-breaking story: the man behind the breakthrough is sidelined.
The development of the Geheimschreiber and the Swedes’ struggles with the ciphers of subsequent versions.
Information leaks: news of the code’s breaking reaches the Russians, the Germans and the United Kingdom.
The decryption of the Geheimschreiber as the founding myth of Sweden’s FRA, one of the world’s most effective radio intelligence agencies.
ABOUT MAREK
Marek Grajek’s professional career developed in three periods. In the first, he specialised in information security, with a particular focus on cryptology. In the second, he participated in the construction of capital markets, mainly in the new democracies. The third was a synthesis of the previous two: he acted as a consultant for cryptology applications, mainly in the areas of finance, capital markets and public administration.
Parallel to his professional career, his writing activities developed, focusing on the history of cryptology. With his retirement, this became his main area of his activity. He was born in Poznan, where the story of how Polish codebreakers broke the ciphers of the German Enigma machine started. Following its trail for years, he became one of the most active historians of this fascinating adventure, devoting a considerable part of his publications and speeches at conferences to it. He is a frequent speaker at conferences on the history of cryptology.
