The interesting saga continues about the ENIGMA machine stolen from the Bletchly Park museum on April 1st. The machine finally turned up on October 17th in the mailroom of the BBC. Apparently the machine was mailed to Jeremy Paxman, the anchor of the BBC's "Newsnight" program. It is believed that the machine had been in the BBC's mailroom for some time. Authorities believe it is the stolen Enigma machine, since it has the G312 serial number. It is unknown whether or not any ransom money was paid by the museum. It was also rumored that the person who stole the machine could have been an insider at the museum who was angry with the museum's manager.

In other news, the CIA is investigating 160 of its employees for exchanging off- color jokes and other "inappropriate" email in a secret chat room that was created in the agency's classified computer network. The chat room was discovered during routine security checks. It had been operating for a number of years.

CIA officials state that the chat room was used for unauthorized purposes, but did not involve any misuse of classified information. Senior CIA managers have a software program called "Shadow" that remotely monitor basically every keystroke made by CIA employees, so it was unlikely that any classified information would have been exchanged. Even so, the employees went to great lengths to ensure that the invitation-only chat room remained hidden from management.

It was also stated that some of the individuals involved are some of the most innovative and unconventional thinkers in the agency who know how to use computers creatively.

The 160 employees & contractors were given five days to explain their actions in writing. The investigation is likely to result in a few firings.

Last month I reported on the demise of ENIGMA, the European Numbers Information Gathering & Monitoring Association. The ENIGMA newsletter is no more, but the group ENIGMA 2000 was formed from former members of the group. ENIGMA 2000 is based around a website. The website has the same address as the old ENIGMA site, which can be reached at http://reachus.at/enigma. The website is still a work in progress, but seems to be coming along OK. The only problem I have with the site is that it would be better if different pages were accessed by clicking on the links rather than the use of popup windows.

The site has some neat photos of different antenna sites and audio samples of numbers stations. The first ENIGMA 2000 newsletter is also available online, through a link to Ary Boender's website. Click on the "downloads" section to find it. I'll discuss the newsletter next month.

I hope you have a happy holiday season and a happy new year.

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