[Milsurplus] Dead Pigeons, Secret Messages, and Random Numbers

[C.Whitaker]

de WB2CPN
When talking to an old-time Signal Corps cryptographer
some 50 years ago he mentioned "Bears and Cubs" which
was some kind of a special writing pad which had tear-off
sheets, every sheet being different.   Good Luck.
73  Clete
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

On 11/26/2012 6:19 PM, J. Forster wrote:
> This is a follow-up to the news story of the long-dead carrier pigeon
> found in a chimney in the UK with a 'secret'message attached.
>
> News reports say that the message may never be decoded, because it was
> encrypted using a one-time pad.
>
> Now the question: In WWII, how did they generate the random data to make
> one-time pads? And, how many distinct, different one-time pads were made?
>
> If the message were now in machine readable form, it could be quickly
> tested against a library of different one-time pads, but that would have
> been next to impossible 70 years ago.
>
> Best,
>
> -John
>
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