Cracking the code of Enigma machines

The keyboard and inputs of an Enigma machine being studied at Germany's Fraunhofer Research Institution for Individualized and Cell-based Medical Technology. — Photos: dpa

The box is covered by rust, and a few mussels are still stuck to one side. The sea has left its traces on the device that looks like an old typewriter due to the round keys.

But in fact, this find is a legendary Enigma machine, an encryption device developed in Germany and used extensively by the Nazis in World War II. Recently, a team of research divers retrieving lost fisher nets and a propeller from the floor of the Baltic Sea accidentally stumbled upon seven of these Enigma machines.