Between silk and cyanide

Description:

The Special Operations Executive (SOE), a British WW2 group infiltrating Reich-dominated Europe, had during the War's early and middle years a continuing problem in certain parts of France. They would train new agents, drop them into French territory, note their contact with a local agent... and they were lost, presumed captured or killed. Two things needed to happen fast: first, a new network had to be built so fresh agents would not be compromised by the older, discovered network. And second, a code generation method must be implemented that did not give a field agent knowledge of how other field agents generated similar messages into encrypted form (knowledge that could be extracted by torture). The answer to the second problem was called a "one time pad", a method still in use today and which had life-saving results almost immediately in the Allied war effort.

subjects: Biography,  British Personal narratives,  Cryptographers,  Cryptography,  Great Britain,  Personal narratives, British,  Secret service,  World War, 1939-1945,  Special Operations Executive,  Gro©britannien,  Erlebnisbericht,  World War (1939-1945) fast (OCoLC)fst01180924,  Weltkrieg (1939-1945),  Kryptologie,  Autobiographie,  New York Times reviewed,  World war, 1939-1945, cryptography,  World war, 1939-1945, secret service, great britain,  World war, 1939-1945, personal narratives, british,  Great britain, biography,  History,  Geheime diensten,  SOE,  Geheimschrift,  Tweede Wereldoorlog,  Great Britain. Special Operations Executive,  Fiction

People: Leo Marks

Places: Great Britain

Times: 1939-1945