Ciphers from the Mechanical Era

Mechanical Ciphers are those that were developed around the second World War, which rely on sophisticated gearing mechanisms to encipher text.

Mechanical Ciphers are those that were developed around the second World War, which rely on sophisticated gearing mechanisms to encipher text. The most famous example of a mechanical cipher was the Enigma, used by the Germans in WW2. However, almost all countries had their own mechanical ciphers at this time, some of these are described below.

These ciphers are invariably more secure than their classical counterparts, but they can still be broken if your adversaries are motivated enough.

• Enigma Cipher

  The Enigma cipher was a field cipher used by the Germans during World War II. It was cracked by British and Polish cryptographers.

• Lorenz Cipher

  The Lorenz cipher was used by the German High Command during the second world war, it is an example of an early stream cipher.