Black Chamber

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Entrance to the former seat of the Black Chamber
Internal working paper from the deciphering of a Japanese code

The Black Chamber (German: Schwarze Kammer) was the first peacetime cryptanalytic institution in the USA and a forerunner of the National Security Agency (NSA) . It is also known under the name Cipher Bureau (German: Chiffrenbüro).

history

The Black Chamber was founded after the end of the First World War under the direction of Herbert Yardley . Yardley was previously the commander of the cryptographic section of MI-8 (Military Intelligence) , which was disbanded after the end of the First World War. Disguised as a code company, the Black Chamber was founded by the US Army and the Department of State with the main purpose of breaking diplomatic communications. A particular success was achieved during the Washington Naval Conference of 1922 when it was possible to decipher the messages of the participants, mainly Japan .

Ten years after it was founded, the Black Chamber was dissolved again. The then Secretary of State of the United States , Henry L. Stimson , expressed the opinion: "Gentlemen do not read each other's mail" (German: "Men of honor do not read the mail of others"). Therefore, the funding from the State Department was abandoned and the Army alone did not want to fund the agency.

The term Black Chamber goes back to Yardley. He wrote the book The American Black Chamber in 1931 . Originally it comes from 17th century Europe, where cryptanalysis was practiced more and more professionally and the European powers formed so-called “ black chambers ” (English: Black chamber or Black room ; French: Cabinet noir ). The purpose was initially to open letters in secret, to read them, to copy them if necessary and to return them locked to the postal service. Over time, the task of deciphering encrypted messages came more and more . The best known and one of the most efficient black chambers was the Secret Cabinet Chancellery in Vienna.

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Pearl Harbor Review - The Black Chamber website of the NSA. Retrieved December 8, 2012
  2. ^ David Kahn : The Codebreakers. The Comprehensive History of Secret Communication from Ancient Times to the Internet . Scribner 1996, ISBN 0-684-83130-9
  3. ^ Stimson, Henry L. / Bundy, McGeorge: On Active Service in Peace and War Harper, 1948, ISBN 0-374-97627-9 .
  4. ↑ Between the World Wars: Demobilzation and a New Intelligence Service ( Memento of the original from June 27, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. The National Army Security Agency Association (NASAA). Retrieved December 8, 2012  @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.nasaa-home.org

Coordinates: 40 ° 45 ′ 14.1 ″  N , 73 ° 58 ′ 37.9 ″  W.