TheCodeBreakers
The relation between cryptography and cryptanalysis is not logically
necessary; it is contingent. One can envision men communicating by
secret means with others not even thinking of prying. But in the real
world, the cryptanalyst —or more accurately the potential cryptanalyst—
comes first. What need for cryptography if no one would eavesdrop? Why
build forts if no one would attack? Thus the assumption that someone
will attempt a cryptanalysis, no matter how tentatively or incompetently,
engenders cryptography.
Experience of the interreaction between cryptography and
cryptanalysis has precipitated out certain practical principles. They all
refer to time, because all practical matters involving mortal men connect
eventually with that one inexorable, irreversible, irretrievable factor.
Time, for the cryptographer, controls a variable relationship. The most
general of the cryptographer's principles deals with the sliding ratio