I have been a long-time lover of security, cryptography, and freedom.

Today I wore my EFF sweatshirt into the NSA booth at the RSA Security Expo. The NSA laughed at me. Little did their booth occupants know that the EFF had gone after them recently over the AT&T domestic wiretapping affair, shown to the word by Mark Klein. He was awarded an EFF Pioneer Award this year for his actions.

In any event, they had an Enigma, and oh boy, do I love enigma. It is the time when the world learned of cryptograhpy, security, and the first time that an army of cryptographers fought a machine to save the lives of the Allies. 

Sure sure, I hate the NSA, but I dealt with them to talk to their Museum Curator, who let me play with the Enigma for a few. The kerchunk-kerchunk sound of the rotors turning and the lamps lighting on the front panel of the device scared me for a moment. The messages encrypted by this machine killed thousands of people, stumped engineers across the world, and caused many convoy ships to sink in the atlantic. We are all in debt to the men who risked their lives to capture this machine and decode it’s secrets.

Some photos from today’s RSA conference are now available online, here: Enigmas at RSA Conference (Set)