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Cryptologic Aspects of German Intelligence Activities in South America during World War II
Aperiodic Polyalphabetic Substitution
These systems were encountered after the
roundup of German spies in Brazil. Immediately
after the Brazilian arrests, two new circuits were
found which had the transmission characteristics of
Hamburg-controlled agent communications: daily
changing callsigns, slow transmission speed, and
voluminous “ham” chatter. The cipher system used
was “running key,” i.e., one in which the juxtaposi-
tion of two sliding alphabets is determined by a
continuous aperiodic key, usually taken from a book
or magazine. It was known ...