A distributed computing project has been set up that aims to crack unbroken Enigma ciphers dating back to World War II. One (http://www.bytereef.org/m4-project-first-break.html) of four unbroken Nazi codes has already succumbed. The M4 project (http://www.bytereef.org.nyud.net:8080/m4_project.html) is seeking help from the net community in breaking the other three codes.

Computer users interested in getting involved can download a client onto their PCs which takes advantage of idle processing time to perform number crunching in much the same way the popular SETI@Home screen saver was used to analyse radio telescope signals from space in the search for extra-terrestrial intelligence. The name of the project comes from the belief that the signals were encoded using a four rotor Enigma M4 device. The signals analysed by the project were captured in the North Atlantic in 1942. ®

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