National Cryptologic Museum, Maryland

During the Covid lockdown, the National Cryptologic Museum in Annapolis Junction, Maryland, (which isn't even close to Annapolis) closed. The owners redid many of the exhibits, creating a new and even more enjoyable experience for visitors. The museum re-opened in October 2022. We visited on Black Friday, trying to avoid the crowds at shopping malls. The joke was on us because everyone else that did not want to shop came here. Even with the crowd, it was a fun experience.

Right by the entrance is a large wheel decoder for encrypting your name.

Or you can just keep spinning it

One hands-on exhibit shows encryption in the ancient world. The ancient Greeks had a code called scytale, where a strap is wrapped around a stick of an exact width to show a message. The sample had several leather straps and several sticks, challenging visitors to match the right stick to the right strap.

Information on transposition cipher, old-style

Success

A less complicated cipher is named after Julius Caesar, who used a simple shift cipher to encrypt his messages. All the letters are shifted a certain number. 

Better than a Caesar's Salad?

A major part of cryptology is understanding other languages. A common source for learning obscure local languages is a Bible. Many missionaries put the hard work in to understand the language and translate the sacred texts for the locals to read and understand. 

Bibles in foreign languages

Obscure languages also make for good codes. An exhibit shows items from Native American Code Talkers. The Comanche language was used during World War II as a very strong code.

Code Talker uniforms

A notebook with translations

The room on languages have a lot of interesting information on the walls, explaining family languages and orphaned languages. They even describe how many languages die out and how they can come back from the dead.  

Language relationships

Zombie languages!

The museum has several Enigma machines that were used by the Nazis during World War II. The Allies captured a machine during the war and were able to decode German messages, creating a huge advantage.

Enigma useable by visitors

The HMFS machine was used by the Germans in World War II to decrypt Soviet intelligence communications. Dubbed the "Russian Fish," it was discovered by the Allies at the end of the war and secretly used to decode the new enemy's intelligence. The Allies renamed it CAVIAR. It became a big success after August 25, 1948, when the Soviets changed all their codes and ciphers. CAVIAR still worked, providing lots of intel for many years during the Cold War.

CAVIAR is a better name, right?

The HF/DF (high-frequency direction finder) was used by the Americans to locate Viet Cong and North Vietnamese Army units in the late 1960s.

 

Does it get the good channels?

The M209 was a field encryption device. Its codes were breakable with a few days of work, which was plenty of time to be useful for tactical situations. It was first used by the Americans in World War II and subsequently saw service in the Korean War and the Vietnam War.

Portability is good

The United States Navy used the ECM Mark II starting in the 1930s. ECM stands for Electric Cipher Machine.

More like a regular typewriter

The NSA enhanced a Droid phone in 2012 so that encrypted calls, emails, and data services can be used. 

They have out-captioned me!

Even civilian government agencies need secure communications, like NASA does when sending military or intelligence payloads into space. This KG-46 encryption system was recovered from the wreckage of the Challenger explosion.

From the Challenger Disaster

The OMI Criptograph was an Italian coding machine similar to the German Enigma that was thought to be lost since the 1950s. This machine was found in 2021 in an NSA warehouse!

Does not look particularly Italian, does it?

This M-9 machine was used to confirm messages in World War II decrypted from German. The wheels have to be in exactly the right configuration to decrypt accurately.

M-9 sounds like a rifle, not a decrypter

The DARPA SSITH Automotive Demonstrator is a simulator where the driver can experience what it's like when a passenger vehicle is hacked. The line of kids to try it out was long, so I just got a picture outside of it.

The blogger and the car

The newly refurbished museum has lots of great stuff to see!