Let’s use 3D animation to go inside the Enigma Machine! Enigma machine is a device used by the German command to encode strategic messages before and during World War II.The Enigma machine was considered so secure that it was used to encipher the most top-secret messages.
source/image: Jared Owen
The Enigma has an electromechanical rotor mechanism that scrambles the 26 letters of the alphabet. In typical use, one person enters text on the Enigma’s keyboard and another person writes down which of the 26 lights above the keyboard illuminated at each key press.The Enigma machine produced encoded messages.
Electrical signals from a typewriter-like keyboard were routed through a series of rotating wheels as well as a plugboard that scrambled the output but did so in a way that was decipherable with the right settings.If plain text is entered, the illuminated letters are the ciphertext. Entering ciphertext transforms it back into readable plaintext. The rotor mechanism changes the electrical connections between the keys and the lights with each keypres.
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The security of the system depends on machine settings that were generally changed daily, based on secret key lists distributed in advance, and on other settings that were changed for each message. The receiving station would have to know and use the exact settings employed by the transmitting station to successfully decrypt a message./source
