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Here is a list of past presentations at ICCH. The most recent presentation is at the top. Click on each listing to reveal more information below, including the speaker, presentation description and to access recordings.
Note: Effort has been made to ensure that the information on each presentation is accurate and up-to-date. To suggest a correction please contact the ICCH webmaster Patrick Hayes at .
The encryption machines developed by Alexander von Kryha are well known in the crypto history community. Kryha was born in Ukraine and came to Germany in the 1920’s. There he started to construct and sell technical devices. While one of his focuses were stoves, his better known products were a series of encryption machines. Kryha had realized that there is a demand for automated encryption during World War I, when he was in the Ukrainian army. Most likely, there are only three cipher machine models Kryha constructed: the Kryha Standard, the Kryha Liliput and the Kryha Electric. All three machines were cryptographically equivalent, and, as is well known, they were not very secure. As this lecture will show, Kryha’s most active time in the crypto business was between 1925 and 1932. Kryha had a workshop and several employees in Berlin. He was present at several trade shows and started an international sales partnership with the then prominent Marconi Corporation, based in London. The second focus of this work will lie on the early 1950’s, when Alexander von Kryha tried to reestablish his crypto machine business after the Second World War.
March 6, 2021
Here is a list of past presentations at ICCH. The most recent presentation is at the top. Click on each listing to reveal more information below, including the speaker, as well as the presentation date and description. Presentation recordings are available separately, in the ICCH Portal.
To view upcoming ICCH presentations, click here.
Note: Effort has been made to ensure that the information on each presentation is accurate and up-to-date. To suggest a correction please contact the ICCH webmaster Patrick Hayes at info@cryptologichistory.org.
The encryption machines developed by Alexander von Kryha are well known in the crypto history community. Kryha was born in Ukraine and came to Germany in the 1920’s. There he started to construct and sell technical devices. While one of his focuses were stoves, his better known products were a series of encryption machines. Kryha had realized that there is a demand for automated encryption during World War I, when he was in the Ukrainian army. Most likely, there are only three cipher machine models Kryha constructed: the Kryha Standard, the Kryha Liliput and the Kryha Electric. All three machines were cryptographically equivalent, and, as is well known, they were not very secure. As this lecture will show, Kryha’s most active time in the crypto business was between 1925 and 1932. Kryha had a workshop and several employees in Berlin. He was present at several trade shows and started an international sales partnership with the then prominent Marconi Corporation, based in London. The second focus of this work will lie on the early 1950’s, when Alexander von Kryha tried to reestablish his crypto machine business after the Second World War.
March 6, 2021
