[SIGCIS-Members] NSA "pre-history of code-breaking"?

[Janet Abbate]

Thanks, Marie. I browsed through and noticed quite a few bits of text are redacted (esp. pp. 203-on, the early post-WWII era). It has a publication date of 2002 but the typesetting looks much older, which is odd; you'd think the government's most computer-savvy agency would have discovered Postscript by 2002. The bibliography shows a good knowledge of the older history of computing literature and archives. I probably won't have time to look further but others may find this useful. 

Janet

On Jun 24, 2013, at 11:47 11PM, M. Hicks wrote:

> Looks like governmentattic.org is down altogether. Here's a mirror of the file:
> http://cryptome.org/2013/06/NSA-WasntAllMagic_2002.pdf
> 
> I haven't read through it yet.
> 
> Marie
> 
> ______________________
> Marie Hicks, Ph.D.
> Asst. Professor, History of Technology
> Illinois Institute of Technology
> Chicago, IL USA
> mariehicks.net | mhicks1 at iit.edu | @histoftech
> 
> On Jun 24, 2013, at 21:08, Janet Abbate <abbate at vt.edu> wrote:
> 
>> This was posted on Slashdot today:
>> 
>> "The National Security Agency has declassified an eye-opening pre-history of computers used for code-breaking between the 1930s and 1960s. The 344 page report, entitled It Wasn't All Magic: The Early Struggle to Automate Cryptanalysis (pdf), it is available on the Government Attic web site. Government Attic has also just posted a somewhat less declassified NSA compendium from 1993: A Collection of Writings on Traffic Analysis. (pdf)"
>> 
>> When I tried to click on the link I got an error message (not that I really want  a file from the NSA on my computer...). Anybody know if this is for real?
>> 
>> Dr. Janet Abbate
>> Associate Professor 
>> Science & Technology in Society
>> Virginia Tech
>> www.sts.vt.edu/ncr
>> www.linkedin.com/groups/STS-Virginia-Tech-4565055
>> www.facebook.com/VirginiaTechSTS
>> 
>> 
>> 
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