ENIGMA 2000 Newsletter - Issue 34

May 2006
Articles, newsreports and Items of interest :enigma2000-owner@yahoogroups.com

HJH's E2K watch

Help solve the “Enigma!”

What an opportunity, thought this tired old author, as, out of the midnight VDU popped the following gem. An offer too good for any red-blooded aficionado of a NL named ENIGMA to decline (or refuse, for that matter!) There is, it seems, a project in progress to decipher one of the last unbroken ENIGMA 2000 encrypted messages transmitted in the last war. (You know, 1939-45, the war that popped up after the war to end ALL wars!) Four only exist at the time of writing this, (040306) so hurry along to your local decrypt comms bunker and get hacking. But, you'll need to rush, 'cos the old workstation has just told me that one has just succumbed. That's right, folks, only three left!

The project is named the M4 project. It is so named, it is thought, because these messages were generated on a four rotor machine.(Back of the class all those who thought it was a jigsaw for long motorway journeys). Computer users who wish to become involved will be contributing their computer time and memory capacity in a similar fashion to those taking part in the SETI project. (You know guys, lil' green men R'us!) The project address is (http://www.bytereef.orgnyud.net:8080/M4-project.html) The help of computer users is sought to crack the last of these messages. HJH has offered his trusty vintage Sinclair Spectrum, but, as this is a family show, will not repeat the reply he received! HJH (With grateful to thanks to John Leyden of the "REGISTER".

1984 re-visited!

The author has suddenly realised, having just read in "THE REGISTER", which is a first rate on line source of current developments in the cyber world in which most of us spend large chunks of our time. (Well, it IS cheaper than the pub!) that all is not as well as the sultans of spin would have us believe. A couple of snippets----"Vehicle license data to be held for 2 years" And "UK Number plate cameras go national". And, of course, what could be complete without "GATSO 2 the UKs very own 24x7 vehicle movement database begins." Is it just THIS author, or is anyone else out there becoming a little bit scared? GATSO 2 (Son of Gatso is a bit more user friendly even if it IS Big Brother!) is a database capable of logging all traffic on Britain 's roads and retaining this data for 2 years. This information was given to the SUNDAY TIMES by a member of the Association of Chief Police Officers (ACPO)

Using Automatic Vehicle Number Recognition, or ANPR, this system will be run from Hendon, which, being home to the PNC (Police National Computer) seems only fair.

After all, these things might get lonely (Can computers become gregarious?)

So what does it do, and why should we worry? It merges existing CCTV, ANPR, and Speedcam systems and databases. And THAT, my friends, is a LOT of surveillance.

The lately departed communist leaders of the now defunct Warsaw Pact nations would have given their collective genitalia for such a surveillance tool. (No pun intended!)

Time on line is given as April 2007 (Wanna bet it's not April first?) Come 2008, this system is estimated to be capable of processing 50,000,000 number plates PER DAY!

Fixed ANPR cameras already are in place at "strategic locations" on every major motorway in UK. (Source, John Dean, ACPO coordinator for ANPR.) The M42 will be used as a trial area for speed limit enforcement, and then will follow" more serious crime " (Their italics, not this authors)

Coming in on the inside track we have our old friends the DVLA with a database linked to ALL MOT testing centres, and which can be linked in to this surveillance network. So, the motorists of our nation would appear to be stitched up like the proverbial bespoke suit! (Not that this author can afford one of THOSE!)

All this of course, depends upon the majority of us continuing to be law abiding and registering our vehicles as and when we buy them. This will mean that the law abiding will be the ONLY ones to be hit. Having been one of Britain's "Thin Blue Line" this author can see horrendous enforcement problems. More and more people will not register their vehicles or use false names and addresses. Another question is how will the system cope with the ever increasing number of foreign vehicles on our groaning roads? Easy! Ignore the difficult, and penalise the easy targets. Ask any CSA worker. (And I don't mean Confederate States of America !)

Which brings me back to the title. As a keen fan of the book 1984, which must rank as a classic, this author sees many similarities jumping out of the woodwork. In the book, the war, which is used to unite a down trodden nation, has gone on for so long no one remembers peace. Ring bells? Population surveillance, via CCTV and other modes, is 24 hours, 7 days a week.( Here, in UK, the same can be said of us. CCTV coverage is now so total, that informed observers have stated that we are the most monitored population in Europe. The author is a civil servant working in a government building. The CCTV coverage, both internal and external, is extensive. The total number of cameras is in three figures!) Pornography, sex, and alcohol and drug abuse are encouraged as a sop to the masses. (Freely available cannabis and other drugs, 24 hour drinking, licensed brothels in certain UK towns, and TV porn channels and magazines ring any bells here guys?) For those amongst us with rose tinted bi- focals, the sentences in brackets are the way things REALLY are in this “home fit for heroes” Well, this author sure ain't no prude, but enough is enough. Let us close with a quote from 1984.

"Power is a boot kicking a human face forever. That, Mr. Smith, is power."

Strange to reflect that most of this has come about under our leader (1984 again!) Bliar (Sorry, Blair, another typo!) And the author of 1984? Easy, I hear you cry, George Orwell. Correct! And George Orwell's real name? Yes folks, you guessed it, Eric BLAIR! Frighten you? It sure does me!

HJH.