The computing factory that defeated the cipher

What Turing and his fellow codebreakers had to crack-writes SAICTA CEO, Dr Jannie Zaaiman, for ITWeb-was a machine filled with rotors – wired discs that routed electrical signals through shifting substitution paths. With each keystroke, rotors stepped, changing the mapping constantly. A plugboard swapped pairs of letters, multiplying chaos.

Then, as now, humans are the weakest link

The real challenge was daily reinvention. Operators changed rotor settings, order, starting positions and plugboard pairings.