History
For more details on this topic, see Signals intelligence in modern history.Intercepting written but encrypted communications, and extracting information, probably did not wait long after the development of writing. A simple encryption system, for example, is the Caesar cipher. Electronic interception appeared as early as 1900, during the Boer Wars. The Boers had captured some British radios, and, since the British were the only people transmitting at the time, no special interpretation of the signals was necessary.
Signals intelligence work can be dangerous even in peacetime. Numerous peacetime international incidents involving the loss of life, including the USS Liberty incident, USS Pueblo (AGER-2) incident, and the shooting down of Flight 60528, occurred during signals intelligence missions.
Read more about this topic: Signals Intelligence
Famous quotes containing the word history:
“The history of men’s opposition to women’s emancipation is more interesting perhaps than the story of that emancipation itself.”
—Virginia Woolf (1882–1941)
“Only the history of free peoples is worth our attention; the history of men under a despotism is merely a collection of anecdotes.”
—Sébastien-Roch Nicolas De Chamfort (1741–1794)
“The view of Jerusalem is the history of the world; it is more, it is the history of earth and of heaven.”
—Benjamin Disraeli (1804–1881)