http://www.the-times.co.uk/news/pages/tim/2000/10/06/timnwsnws01010.html October 6th, 2000 BY SAM LISTER THE owners of a stolen Second World War Enigma code machine have appealed to a thief to get in contact after agreeing to pay a 25,000 ransom for its safe return. In a letter addressed to the Bletchley Park war museum in Buckinghamshire, the thief emphasised that were his ultimatum - 25,000 by midnight today - not met, the irreplaceable machine would be destroyed. Christine Large, director of the Bletchley Park Trust, said that the museum had found enough money to pay the ransom but had no way of contacting the person making the demands. She said: "We have to make contact before the deadline. "He has to get in touch with us. We have taken the decision that we will pay the ransom that has been asked for. We did not have the money, but we have been given funds by a private donor." The machine, valued at 100,000, was stolen from Bletchley Park in April. Since its disappearance, the museum has received a series of letters related to the burglary. Police and staff believe that the latest note, written on an typewriter, comes from someone in possession of the device. The Enigma machine, a code encrypter, was captured from the Germans by the Royal Navy in 1941, an event critical to the outcome of the war. *==============================================================* "Communications without intelligence is noise; Intelligence without communications is irrelevant." Gen Alfred. M. Gray, USMC ================================================================ C4I.org - Computer Security, & Intelligence - http://www.c4i.org *==============================================================*
