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7/30/2019 Conferinta RCD

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DAN TOMA DULCIU

500 Years of Romanian Cryptography

http://dulciu.wordpress.com

http://dulciu.blogspot.com

[email protected]


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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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- 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as historical documents dating back to the 15th and 16th centuries prove it: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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- 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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-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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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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- 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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- 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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-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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-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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- 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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-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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- 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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- 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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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.

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