Communications under surveillance, from the Black Cabinet to Echelon

Communication systems have evolved considerably over time. But did you know that secret messages also have a history? Already in ancient Egypt and in the 6th century BC, encrypted messages emerged, such as the Atbash cipher, used to mask references to names mentioned in the Bible. Among the most famous cryptographies, we can also cite that of “666,” the number of the beast, in the Apocalypse of John (paragraph 13, verse 18), represented by the three Greek letters χ (chi) = 600, ξ (csi) = 60, and ϝ (digamma) or ϛ (stigmatization) = 6. This secret communication code is said to have been used to designate Emperor Nero and his persecution of Christians. Over time, new forms of codes appeared, and new technologies largely contributed to their complexity. A look back at the ancestor of Big Brother…