The science of encrypting and decrypting messages.
The CIA glossary defines cryptology as the science of encrypting and decrypting secret messages. It has two sides: cryptography, the making of ciphers and codes, and cryptanalysis, the breaking of them.1
Poland's best-known achievement in cryptology is the breaking of the Enigma cipher by the mathematicians of the Cipher Bureau (Biuro Szyfrów). According to Gill Bennett, historian at the British Foreign Office, the disclosure of their results to the British at Pyry on 26 July 1939 shortened the British attack on Enigma by at least a year.2,3
After the war cryptology became the domain of specialised agencies. According to the NSA, a directive of the President and the National Security Council of 24 October 1952 replaced the Armed Forces Security Agency with the new National Security Agency; its first director, from 4 November 1952, was Lt Gen. Ralph J. Canine.4
Sources
- CIA, Spy Speak Glossary
- Foreign Intelligence Agency, Enigma decryption
- Gill Bennett, blog of the UK Foreign Office historians (history.blog.gov.uk), What’s the context? Polish cryptologists reveal they have cracked the Enigma code, 26 July 1939 (26.07.2019)
- NSA, Center for Cryptologic History, The Origins of NSA
Checked: 4 November 2026