Dorothy T Blum
Dorothy Toplitzky Blum significantly changed the way NSA did cryptanalysis, pioneering the use of computers to manipulate and process data automatically.
Category Archives: Espionage
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Elizebeth Smith Friedman
Cryptanalyst and pioneer in U.S. cryptology
Genevieve Grotjan Feinstein
Skilled cryptanalyst whose successful breakthrough enabled the Army Signal Intelligence Service (SIS) to build an analog machine that solved the Japanese diplomatic system known as “Purple.” Exploitation of this system provided crucial intelligence in the Atlantic and Pacific theaters during World War II.
Hilda Faust Mathieu
Computer network pioneer Hilda Faust Mathieu was an early advocate recognizing network vulnerabilities and one of the driving forces developing security controls for network protection at the NSA.
Agnes Meyer Driscoll
Agnes Meyer Driscoll’s work as a navy cryptanalyst who broke a multitude of Japanese naval systems, as well as a developer of early machine systems, marks her as one of the true “originals” in American cryptology.
Ann Z Caracristi
Ann Caracristi began her career with the Army’s cryptologic organization during World War II. After a brief civilian career immediately following the war, she joined one of NSA’s predecessor organizations as a cryptanalyst.
Marie Meyer
Marie Meyer was a language scholar from Illinois with a Master’s Degree in Latin as well as knowledge of Greek German and Sanskrit hired as a cryptographer by the Signal Security Agency in 1943. She became the first person to receive NSA’s Meritorious Civilian Service Award.
Mary Budenbach
Mary Budenbach, a graduate of Smith College and known to all as “Polly,” joined the Navy’s cryptologic organization, OP-20-G, in 1943. Trained as a cryptanalyst, she worked against Japanese naval ciphers during World War II.
Elizabeth Van Lew
She joined with other Richmond Unionists to create an underground network to hinder the Confederate war effort and give aid and comfort to captured Union soldiers during the United States’ Civil War.
Aphra Behn
1600s playwright, poet and spy