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Substitution hand cipher
- this page is a stub
- wanted item
Ertug was a
manual alphabet substitution cipher,
also known as a strip cipher,
that was used by the Turkish Army between 1960 and 1990. It is named after its
creator — Ertuğ. It was intended for low-level tactical messages,
of which the significance would be lost after several hours [1].
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The device consists of a rectangular aluminium panel with 10 horizontal
rows of letters, and a vertically sliding ruler. Each row consists of
the 26 letters of the Latin alphabet in scrambled order (A-Z),
and has a writable space at the far right.
Each aphabet is scrambled differently.
The vertical slider is printed with the 26 letters of the latin alphabet
in regular order (A-Z).
The image on the right shows a typical Ertug Cipher device, with the
complementary leather wallet as described in a book by Prof.
Dr. Esref Adali [1].
It is reproduced here by permission of the author.
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In 1982, the Philips Aroflex
— a secure NATO cipher machine — was introduced
to the Turkish Army, and the Ertug hand cipher gradually disappeared.
Several years later, in 1988, the Turkish Foreign Office also abandoned
its older systems, and replaced it by a special variant of
Aroflex.
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At present, no further information about this cipher system is available.
You can help us by providing descriptions of its use, operating procedures,
additional photographs or, better, an original device. If you think you
can help us in any way, please contact us.
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- Prof. Dr. Eşref Adalı, Ertuğ Cipher
Bilgisayar ve Bilgi Güvenliği ve Yönetimi. 2016
Computer and Information Security and Management (Turkish).
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© Crypto Museum. Created: Sunday 05 January 2020. Last changed: Saturday, 04 June 2022 - 07:54 CET.
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![Ertug strip cipher. Image kindly provided by Prof. Dr. Esref Adali [1].](img/ertug_large.jpg)
![Ertug strip cipher. Image kindly provided by Prof. Dr. Esref Adali [1].](img/ertug_thumb.jpg "image # ertug_large.jpg")
![Close-up of the Ertug strip cipher. Image kindly provided by Prof. Dr. Esref Adali [1].](img/ertug1_thumb.jpg "image # ertug1_large.jpg")
![Close-up of the Ertug strip cipher. Image kindly provided by Prof. Dr. Esref Adali [1].](img/ertug1_large.jpg)