Михаило Петровић Алас - наш водећи криптограф између два светска рата

Abstract

Encryption is today one of standard approaches for achieving security and privacy in the digital space, and a large number of experts works in this area both from a scientific and research perspective and in the domains of a large number of different applications. At the time of Mihail Petrovic Alas, dealing with encryption was a rather rare and very specific job, and he was at the same time the main scientist-researcher and chief state advisor responsible for the codes between the two world wars. It is preserved a relatively small number of records mainly in the form of military documents about this very respectable segment of work and achievements of Mihailo Petrovic that was very important at that time and is also important and interesting from the historical perspective. These documents undoubtedly indicate great merits of M. P. Alas for our country in the domain of cryptology even before it was established as a world level scientific discipline [4]. This paper summarizes, based on [1] – [3] and [5] – [6], some of the historical facts about the M. P. Alas as our main cryptographer between the two world wars. In the mentioned documents, it was noted that the work of M. P. Alas and the results of this work can be found in: (1) Methods for encryption, (2) methods for “breaking” the codes and (3) education on encryption techniques as well as deciphering of encrypted messages. History acknowledges, and due to the growing importance of the area in which M. P. Alas has left his mark, history will even further emphasize the work of Mihailo Petroviс Alas in the domain of the development of the Serbian state ciphering methods between the two world wars.