Auguste Kerckhoffs

Dr Auguste Kerckhoffs (19 January 1835 - 1903) was a Flemish linguist and cryptographer who was professor of languages at the School of Higher Commercial Studies in Paris in the late 19th century. Image File history File links Kerkhoffs. ... Image File history File links Kerkhoffs. ... January 19 is the 19th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ... 1835 was a common year starting on Thursday (see link for calendar). ... 1903 (MCMIII) was a common year starting on Thursday (see link for calendar). ... Flemings (Dutch: Vlamingen) are inhabitants of Flanders in the widest sense of the term, i. ... The following is a list of linguists, those who study linguistics. ... Pre-19th century Leone Battista Alberti, polymath/universal genius, inventor of polyalphabetic substitution (see frequency analysis for the significance of this -- missed by most for a long time and dumbed down in the Vigenère cipher), and what may have been the first mechanical encryption aid. ... A professor (Latin: one who claims publicly to be an expert) (prof for short) is a senior teacher, lecturer and researcher, usually in a college or university. ... The Eiffel Tower has become a symbol of Paris throughout the world. ... Alternative meaning: Nineteenth Century (periodical) (18th century — 19th century — 20th century — more centuries) As a means of recording the passage of time, the 19th century was that century which lasted from 1801-1900 in the sense of the Gregorian calendar. ...

Kerckhoffs was born in Nuth, the Netherlands, and was baptised as Jean-Guillaume-Hubert-Victor-François-Alexandre-Auguste Kerckhoffs von Niuewenhof, although he later shortened his name. Kerckhoffs studied at the University of Liège. After a period of teaching in schools in the Netherlands and France, he became a professor of German at the Parisian Ecole des Hautes Etudes Commerciales and Ecole Arago. Nuth is a municipality and a town in the southeastern Netherlands. ... The University of Liège (ULg), in Liège in Belgium, is a major public university in the French Community of Belgium. ... The Eiffel Tower has become a symbol of Paris throughout the world. ... For the École des Hautes Études Commerciales of the Université de Montréal, see École des Hautes Études Commerciales de Montréal. ...

He is best known today for a series of two essays he published in 1883 in le Journal des Sciences Militaires ("Journal of Military Science") entitled La Cryptographie Militaire ("Military Cryptography"). These articles surveyed the then state-of-the-art in military cryptography, and made a plea for considerable improvements in French practice. They also included many pieces of practical advice and rules of thumb, including six principles of practical cipher design: 1883 was a common year starting on Monday (see link for calendar). ... Cryptography has had a long and colourful history. ... A rule of thumb is an easily learned and easily applied procedure for approximately calculating or recalling some value, or for making some determination. ...

1. The system should be, if not theoretically unbreakable, unbreakable in practice.
2. Compromise of the system should not inconvenience the correspondents.
3. The key should be rememberable without notes and should be easily changeable
4. The cryptograms should be transmittable by telegraph
5. The apparatus or documents should be portable and operable by a single person
6. The system should be easy, neither requiring knowledge of a long list of rules nor involving mental strain

The most well-known is the second of his six principles, also known as Kerckhoffs' law. It can also be understood as the idea that the security of a cryptosystem must depend only on the key", and not on the secrecy of any other part of the system. In cryptography, Kerckhoffs law (also called Kerckhoffs assumption, axiom or principle) was stated by Auguste Kerckhoffs in the 19th century: a cryptosystem should be secure even if everything about the system, except the key, is public knowledge. ... A key is a piece of information that controls the operation of a cryptography algorithm. ...

Volapük

In 1885, Dr. Kerckhoffs became interested in the constructed language Volapük, and for several years was a leading member of the Volapük movement, and Director of the Academy of Volapük. He published several books on the subject and introduced the movement to France, Spain and Scandinavia through a series of public lectures. 1885 is a common year starting on Thursday. ... An artificial or constructed language (known colloquially as a conlang among aficionados), is a language whose phonology, grammar and vocabulary are specifically devised by an individual or small group, rather than having naturally evolved as part of a culture as with natural languages. ... Volapük - Wikipedia /**/ @import /skins-1. ... The neutrality and factual accuracy of this article are disputed. ...

External links

• La Cryptographie Militaire — French original and translations into English