Bletchley park to help solve the enigmas of 21st century online security

Bletchley Park to Help Solve the Enigmas of 21st Century Online Security

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The issue of data protection is not a new one, but one place famous for its hacking work in the past is to complete its journey from poacher to gamekeeper when it becomes an online security centre.

Bletchley Park near Milton Keynes was the centre of Britain's efforts in the second world war to break the encrypted codes of the Germans and the Italians, most famously by cracking the enigma code. This was used by German U-boats to co-ordinate attacks on ships while not giving away their own positions – until the maths behind the encryption was worked out and the messages unravelled.

Codebreakers at the site included Alan Turing, the mathematician who enabled Britain to win the race to develop the first modern computer. However, he was just one of over 1,000 staff employed at the site and other codes being broken included Italian signals to supply ships crossing the Mediterranean to north Africa to supply Axis troops in the battle of El-Alamein in 1943.

The achievements of Turing and the other codebreakers at Bletchley Park put them among the great unsung heroes of the war, but now the site is being used to focus on the other side of data security, with cyber security firm McAfee announcing a five-year deal with the Bletchley Park Trust to help preserve the site and develop it for educational purposes.

This will include an international Cyber Security Exhibition and Computer Learning Zone, to form part of the new visitor centre when the park reopens after redevelopment. That is planned to occur next summer to coincide with the 70th anniversary of D-Day. Without Bletchley, the victory for which those Normandy landings paved the way might not have been possible.

Chairman of the Bletchley Park Trust Sir John Scarlett commented: "The Codebreakers at Bletchley Park during World War Two battled against the very real threat of invasion.

"Today, when we live so much of our lives online, it is vital to understand how best to remain safe in the digital world. Our strategic partnership with McAfee is a fitting tribute to the pioneering men and women who helped to shorten World War Two."

Chief executive at Bletchley Ian Standen told TechWeekEurope UK explained how even small gaps in German data security systems created points of vulnerability the codebreakers could exploit. He remarked: "The exhibition will highlight how you use technology and will make links to the wartime work at Bletchley. For instance, the German Enigma code makers were very clever, but they didn’t look for problems: they used their girlfriends’ names as passwords."

That may serve as a major warning to those who might be complacent about their own company security. There will always be new and more sophisticated ways of stealing data, finding vulnerabilities and developing ever more penetrative viruses. Companies who do not use the expert help available to them may be the first to be caught out.

While the Nazis may have been consigned to a grim chapter of history, the menace of cyber criminals remains real and many enterprises will be concerned about the consequences if any data is stolen and ends up in the wrong hands. It might not lead to a Panzer division crashing its way into the premises while Messerschmidts fly overhead, but it could lead to vital information being stolen, viruses being implanted and money redirected out of company accounts – to name but some of the threats.

Indeed, a modern kind of data battle will not be one where broadcasts in code are deciphered to help those fighting a physical conflict on the front line, but involve electronic data itself becoming the weapon.

This was suggested in a recent KPMG report which argued that cyber-attacks are becoming more diverse and not just about criminals trying to enrich themselves. It said future attacks will be increasingly ideological and political, aimed at disrupting systems and economies. The report even went as far as suggesting the next economic crash will be caused not by the failings of banks, but by such a major crash of data and IT systems.

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help-solve-the-enigmas-of-21st-century-online-security/". Bletchley Park to Help Solve the Enigmas of 21st Century Online

Security. October 24,2013. Storetec.