The Role of Cryptography in Intelligence

Že od nekdaj so plemena, klani, cesarstva, narodi, kraljevine in države, da bi se lažje odločale v kritičnih trenutkih, zbirali informacije o tem, kakšne so namere nasprotne strani. To vrsto zbiranja informacij poznamo pod imenom obveščevalna dejavnost. Nekateri trdijo, da je zbiranje obveščevalnih informacij, drugi najstarejši poklic na svetu. Že Sun Cu je v svoji knjigi Umetnost vojne zapisal: »Tisto, kar omogoča pametnim državam in generalom, da dosežejo več kot navaden človek, je »predznanje« o nasprotniku, ki pa ga lahko pridobijo, samo od drugih ljudi – vohunov.« To »predznanje«, je izredno pomembno, saj je pravočasno pridobljena informacija voditeljem držav omogočila, da pravočasno sprejmejo »ustrezne« ukrepe. Zato imajo vse sodobne države specifične službe, ki se ukvarjajo z obveščevalno dejavnostjo. Z nastankom obveščevalne dejavnosti, se je pojavila potreba po skrivanju informacij pred nasprotnikom, zato se je pojavila kriptografija, ki je v sodobnem času informacijske tehnologije, postala samostojna znanstvena veda. Beseda je sestavljena iz dveh grških besed: kriptos – skrit in graphein – pisati. Namen kriptografije je zaščititi podatke, ki se prenašajo v verjetni navzočnosti nasprotnika. Kriptografska transformacija podatkov je postopek, s katerim se podatki v navadnem besedilu prikrijejo ali šifrirajo, kar povzroči spremenjeno besedilo, ki se imenuje šifrirano besedilo in ki ne razkrije izvirnika. Poleg zaščite lastnih komunikacij, poizkušajo obveščevalne službe s pomočjo kriptografskih metod dešifrirati prestrežene informacije nasprotnika in tako pridobiti pomembne podatke o tem, do kakšnih informacij so prišle tuje obveščevalne službe.From time immemorial, tribes, clans, empires, nations, kingdoms and states have been gathering information about the intentions of the opposing side to make decisions easier at critical moments. This type of information gathering is known as intelligence activity. Some argue that intelligence gathering is the second oldest profession in the world. Already Sun Tsu wrote in his book The Art of War: »What enables smart states and generals to achieve more than the common man is "foreknowledge" of the adversary, which can only be gained from other people - spies.« This "prior knowledge" is extremely important in modern times. Timely information enabled heads of state to take "appropriate" measures in a timely manner. That is why all modern countries have intelligence services. As soon as the man began to engage in intelligence activity, there was also a need to hide information in the presence of opponents. Thus, cryptography emerged, which in the modern age of information technology has become an independent scientific science. The word consists of two Greek words: cryptos - hidden and graphein - to write. The purpose of cryptography is to protect data that is transmitted in the probable presence of an adversary. Cryptographic data transformation is the process by which data in plain text is obscured or encrypted, resulting in a modified text called encrypted text that does not reveal the original. In addition to protecting their own communications, intelligence services use cryptographic methods to decipher intercepted adversary information and thus obtain important information about what information foreign intelligence services have obtained