Tony Comer @tonycomer.bsky.social · 18/06/2026Please have a look at it and let us know what you think. (3/3) 031
Tony Comer @tonycomer.bsky.social · 18/06/2026It’s available at www.nsist.org/glossary and, as part of NSIST’s educational remit, is completely free to access and use. It is the start of what we hope will develop into an online reference library. (2/3)nsist.org 162
Tony Comer @tonycomer.bsky.social · 18/06/2026To help those interested in Second World War UK cryptology who wonder about the difference between an indicator and a discriminant, what forty-weepy might be, or what bonking and blogging meant at that time, I have compiled from original sources a glossary. (1/3) 1127
Tony Comer @tonycomer.bsky.social · 01/03/2026On 27 November 1943, Guy Liddell, a senior MI5 officer recorded a story about Winston Churchill. (Source TNA KV4/192) 170
Tony Comer @tonycomer.bsky.social · 19/01/2026Indeed. I have no idea how much thought was given to the balance between routine physical integrity and emergency disintegratibility of paper-based crypto. I have no doubt that the codebooks and keymat on punched tape HMS Coventry were perceived to be a potential target of opportunity. 010
Tony Comer @tonycomer.bsky.social · 19/01/2026I showed this to the (then) Prince of Wales in 2019. It's a one time pad which was dumped into the sea in 1982 in South Georgia, and recovered some weeks later. The sea hadn't done any real damage. The crypto gear on HMS Coventry was rather more sensitive. 121
Tony Comer @tonycomer.bsky.social · 19/01/2026It certainly seems to be legit - en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operati... - but I don't know anything further about the specifics. There was a real need to recover the material from the sea if possible.en.wikipedia.orgOperation Blackleg - Wikipedia 101
Tony Comer @tonycomer.bsky.social · 11/01/2026How you maintain Communications Security in the heat of battle? A new post at siginthistorian.blogspot.com looks at the Battle of the North Cape and concludes that leaving it pragmatically to the people on the spot may be the most sensible approach. 041
Tony Comer @tonycomer.bsky.social · 29/12/2025Thanks again. This is for my daughter who wants an overview before getting too deep into detail. 010
Tony Comer @tonycomer.bsky.social · 29/12/2025Does anybody know of a reasonable documentary about the Nuremberg process (apart from episode 25 of The World at War)? 300
Tony Comer @tonycomer.bsky.social · 27/11/2025Paging @jockbruce.bsky.social whom I've been nagging in this context for some years. 110
Tony Comer @tonycomer.bsky.social · 13/10/2025From Threads. www.threads.com/@contagiousl... Animal welfare meets immigration policy.threads.comContagious Laughter (@contagiouslaughter.official) on ThreadsFollowing a ban on using animals for entertainment, the Prime Minister of Denmark explains a complication that arose when the state subsequently had to purchase four elephants from the circus. 😂 funny... 010
Tony Comer @tonycomer.bsky.social · 12/10/2025Out to lunch at a pub today and the server asked what drinks people wanted. One asked for Chardonnay and was told 'We don't have any Chardonnay but our house wine is made from the same grape'. 'OK. I'll have that then ' 4212
Tony Comer @tonycomer.bsky.social · 23/09/2025I've had an article published in Diplomacy & Statecraft: 'Behind the Enigma: How GCHQ's Authorised History Appeared'. The first 50 people to click on the link get a copy for free! www.tandfonline.com/eprint/BCZTB... 3248
Tony Comer @tonycomer.bsky.social · 21/09/2025It's (still!) hypothetical but I'd guess that the organisation would be fundamentally reformed from above leaving the ethical middle- and lower-level staff to accept the new reality or move on. Their ethical product wouldn't get through the new filter at the top. 110
Tony Comer @tonycomer.bsky.social · 21/09/2025I think if a country was democratically backsliding, a reasonably apolitical intelligence agency would be the first thing to be undemocratically backslid into following the party line. 120
Tony Comer @tonycomer.bsky.social · 17/09/2025I explore need-to-know again in a post at www.siginthistorian.blogspot.com looking at an Official Secrets Act case in which a clear Sigint connection was ignored because the investigators had no idea it existed. 121
Tony Comer @tonycomer.bsky.social · 16/09/2025No. 'The School', maybe, just as GCHQ people today talk about 'The Department ' or (perhaps older, retired, people) 'The Office'. You'll sometimes see complicated 'Golf, Cheese and Chess Society' formations, but I've never seen them in anything contemporary and they aren't things people say. 120
Tony Comer @tonycomer.bsky.social · 13/09/2025I was surprised that it was written by a Norwegian. 110
Tony Comer @tonycomer.bsky.social · 05/09/2025Did Quex ever think he was subordinate to the Foreign Secretary? 120
Tony Comer @tonycomer.bsky.social · 29/08/2025How good is 'I was there' as a guarantee of historical memory? Not, perhaps, as good as it might seem. A new post at siginthistorian.blogspot.com looks at records and memory. 174
Tony Comer @tonycomer.bsky.social · 16/08/2025How to sort out parking on busy roads: this is what our council has done. 121
Tony Comer @tonycomer.bsky.social · 02/08/2025… there's an awful lot of creative writing: imagined conversations and a neatness you don't get in real life. Tiltman *was* a fan; Marks *did* write poem codes; the Dutch Resistance was shamefully treated. But it's a 'must read', perhaps the perfect introduction to cryptology for 14+ teens. (2/2) 010
Tony Comer @tonycomer.bsky.social · 02/08/2025I refuse to comment on that bl**dy pigeon: it blighted a couple of months of my life! The Leo Marks book is an excellent read, and has brought more than one person to cryptanalysis as a career. It has a solid and historical foundation, but (you were expecting a 'but') ... (1/2) 120
Tony Comer @tonycomer.bsky.social · 26/07/2025It's easy to overclassify and it's easy to be nervous about release. An illustration of this point in a new post on siginthistorian.blogspot.com 042
Tony Comer @tonycomer.bsky.social · 20/07/2025It's you he'll bother, over there. He'll have been watching Clarkson's farm. 010
Tony Comer @tonycomer.bsky.social · 03/07/2025A new post at siginthistorian.blogspot.com looks at what can happen when two opposing sides are using the same cryptosystems. 0103
Tony Comer @tonycomer.bsky.social · 25/06/2025news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4437... shows the news that has provoked so much comment. Why it has happened is anybody's guess.news.ycombinator.comNational Archives at College Park, MD, will become a restricted federal facility | Hacker News 010
Tony Comer @tonycomer.bsky.social · 17/06/2025RAF A400M ZM416 (c/s NAPER60) being used to teach pilots how to fly at 600 ft. I assume they have the aircon switched on! 150
Tony Comer @tonycomer.bsky.social · 01/06/2025Good description of Henry VIII but he is sadly not unique in terms of rufism and finiscampeism. 120
Tony Comer @tonycomer.bsky.social · 25/05/2025Can you read Spanish? Soldados sin Rostro by José Ramón Solder and Francisco Javier López-Brea looks in detail at intelligence and cryptology on both sides. 151
Tony Comer @tonycomer.bsky.social · 20/05/2025www.independent.co.uk/life-style/r...independent.co.ukRoyal beekeeper informs Buckingham Palace bees that the Queen has diedThe palace has five beehives, each containing around 20,000 bees 010
Tony Comer @tonycomer.bsky.social · 17/05/2025If there's hot tea in that mug, the chocolate at the ends is going to melt. 000
Tony Comer @tonycomer.bsky.social · 12/05/2025Another superb piece by Gill - how many intelligence historians could follow their paper at a conference with a turn? 1101
