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DAN TOMA DULCIU
500 Years of Romanian Cryptography
http://dulciu.wordpress.com
http://dulciu.blogspot.com
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500 YEARS OF ROMANIAN CRYPTOGTOGRAPHY
This study
is dedicated to
celebrating The first
Book
of
Cryptographyin
Romania .
(15112011)
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500 Years of Romanian Cryptography
- The Romanian scholars of theMiddle Ages mastered enough cryptography
as historical documents dating back to the 15th and 16th centuries prove it:
The Psalm of Scheia, The Codex of Voronet, The Common Worship Texts of Evstatie,
the Chorister of Putna (1511)
- The documents also show that the copysts used some encoded writing on a daily basis
in the SCRIPTORIA of Moldavia.
- They prove that in some church schools Cryptography was a subject for study
in a Quadriviumtype curriculum.
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500 Years of Romanian Cryptography
- InMoldavia, cryptographic practice could be found
mainly amongJesuits monks who knew encoded writing
and a part of them were close to theMoldavian Court.
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500 Years of Romanian Cryptography
-The greatest encyclopedists of the late 17th and 18th centuries,
Nicolae Milescu (1665), Constantin Cantacuzino (1667) and
Dimitrie Cantemir (author ofThe Hieroglyphic History), used
cryptograhic science in theyr chancellery to encode the
diplomatic correspondence.-Dimitrie Cantemir has a famous mentor in this field: Greek
monkIeremia Cacavelas, a polylglot theologian, philosoper and
preacher, who has studied at the Universities of Leipzig and
Viena.
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500 Years of Romanian Cryptography
The development of theRomanian Cryptography
depended on the following two factors:
1. The existence of a functionaldiplomatic institution;
2. The development of a fast and a secure
communication network.
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500 Years of Romanian Cryptography
- The end of 17th century and the beginning of the next
century marked the official birth of the function of
cryptographer and of the so-called black chamber .
- They functioned within the RomanianPrinces
Courts inMoldavia and Walachia.
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500 Years of Romanian Cryptography
- The cryptographers specialised in reading and
breaking the seals of diplomatic letters, were
foreign citizens, who knew Greek, Turkish, Latin,
French, Polish, Russian, German or Italian.
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500 Years of Romanian Cryptography
-During the 18th century, the firstMasonic Lodges
in Romania, like the one established
byAnton Maria del Chiaro (1734), highly valued thesecret
writing.
- The next century, the revolutionary movements such as
ETERIA and FRATIA (The Brotherhood) were
using encrypted writing, as means of protecting the secrecy
of their activities.
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500 Years of Romanian Cryptography
-Alexandru Ioan Cuza, the founder ofUnited Romanian Principalities (1859),
used the encoded diplomatic correspondence as an attribute of sovereignty.
-The oldest surviving code book created by French specialists can
currently be found at theNational Library -Dictionnaire Ciffre - dated 1863.
-The PrinceAlexandru Ioan Cuza turned to French cryptographers
who provided consultancy for the Romanian authorities.
-So that, for nearly 80 years, Romania has used diplomatic
codes of French inspiration.
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500 Years of Romanian Cryptography
- Even after the arrival to
the throne
ofPrince Charles of Hohenzollern, the Romanian officers continued to be
sent to famous military schools in France, so the Romanian School ofCryptography is tributary to the French School of Cryptography as thought
and practice.
- This cooperation increased especially during the 1877 Independence
Warwhen the Romanian Army was the first in the world to use codes on
the battlefield.
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500 Years of Romanian Cryptography
-Around World War II, the Romanian cryptography goes
through two important moments, namely the first attempt
to legally regulate this field, resulting in the unitary
organization of the State Encryption System(1940), and
the creation of the first
Romanian cipher machine,
a local replica of the famous Enigma code machine.
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500 Years of Romanian Cryptography
- After the end ofSecond World War, Romania was forced for 15 years to follow
the Soviet model of the rules and principles governing encryption.
- Post 1960, Romania started to promote anational policy, so the
first step was the field of Cryptology. Since 1964, the state authorities
gradually proceeded to producecryptographic equipment by their own means.
- The Romanianschools of mathematics provided the theoretical support and the
human potential to have been used in Cryptology in Romania.
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500 Years of Romanian Cryptography
- In the mid -70, Romania acquired western telecommunications
equipment, made by prestigious companies, technical devices and
components being used fornational enryption system.
-For internal or less important lines of communications, Romania
producedcryptographic machines and developednew technologies.
-At the end of 1966, a new legislation that unitary regulated the
crytologic activity appeared and it remained in force for almost 25
years, but was substantially modified after the transformations
that took place post 1989 in Romania.
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500 Years of Romanian Cryptography
Telecommunication
systems
- As a result of interest of the two European poles of power of the mid 19th
century (France and Austria) to have communications lines in this part of thecontinent, Romania quickly became part in a pan-european telegraph
network.
- So, we can say that, in the mid 19th century, the emergence of the
communications network in Romania was quasi - synchronic with the
Central European communications system, placing our country in the firstechelon of the technologically advanced countries in Europa.
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500 Years of Romanian Cryptography
1859 - 1866
Under theAlexandru Ioan Cuzas rule:
- During theAlexandru Ioan Cuzas rule the first modern diplomatic agencies were
settled and the groundwork was laid for the state encryption and the signals service.
- The first pieces of legislation regulated the activity of thetelegraphs andpost office in
Romania, according to which the transmission of communications by electric wires
become a state monopoly (1865).
- The printing of the first modern cryptographic book: Elie Bosianu, Coordinated
Stenography and Cryprography Treaty in Romanian, Bucharest, 1864
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500 Years of Romanian Cryptography
19141944 Interwar period
- In the World War I,Romanian Criptographic Service was the first in the world to
encode with adouble encryption the texts of the most secret messages.
- 1940unifying of the Romanian cipher services and the settlement of thePermanent Commision of the State Cipher.
-The firstRomanian Cipher Machine; inventor-Petre Lupan. Patent no:
31391/1940. The documentation of this invention is currently in the State Office
for Inventions and Trademarks(OSIM) archive, in Bucharest.
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500 Years of Romanian Cryptography
19441965
Cold War Period
-At the legal level, we assist at the first atempts to organize the whole activity of the
cryptologic field in Romania; so, the most important achievement was the settlement of the Central Cipher Service.
-As a result of the foreign pressure, for a few years, a secret division called the Special
Records Division(SRD) was established as an independent body to the Council of Ministers.
- In the mid60th of the last century, most of the official transmissions have been carried
out using Romanian cryptographic materials. The random character of these materials
was verified with the only powerful computer ELLIOT 802in Hunedoara Town.
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500 Years of Romanian Cryptography
19671989
The begining of modern Romanian Cryptology.
1967The Central Cipher and Encrypted Communication Service (HCM 3074/1967)
provided a unitary framework for cryptologic activities.- In the next years a lot of legal regulations have been adopted in order to provide the security of the
diplomatic representative offices of Romania abroad, especially the cipher activity.
- During that period, the both sides of Cryptology were developed: Encryption - the defensive side
of the protection of the confidential informations, and Codebreaking as an ofensive side.
- After 1989, these fascinating activities involving mathematical, philological and other
investigations, have had spectacular results in collecting important and safe confidentialinformations, continuied on a higher scientific plane and with highly-performing IT means.
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500 Years of Romanian Cryptography
Today
Advanced Cryptology
- Many scientific and applicative research within the Departament of
Cryptologywas performed by Romanian
Foreign Intelligence Service(SIE)
- In the same time, Romanian research at the academic and university level had
a major contribution to the development of Cryptology in Romania.
- Many specialists, teachers and professionals held a lot of lectures on topics
pertaining to the field of information technology, many of them with references
to Cryptology.
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500 Years of Romanian Cryptography
Conclusions- The Five Centuries of Romanian Cryptography that we are now celebrating
have seen a positive, encouraging development, in line with the evolution of this
science in the whole world.
- The name of a great cryptologist, such as William Friedman, or the activity of
many mathematicians in our country togheter with theyr colegues who work
with dozen of prestige Universities across the Ocean testify to the Romanian
valuable contribution in this field.