Following our recent insights into the team, we would now like to return to publishing more technical content. After all, outstanding programming expertise—and a strong drive to develop solutions for previously unsolved problems—are core competencies at ICO-LUX.
What sets our product ICO.Link apart is its ability to technically anonymise data in an effective way. This makes it possible to compare data for specific use cases, for example between insurance companies—something that was previously not permitted under data protection law, even in cases where there was suspicion of a criminal offence such as fraud.
Today, we use state-of-the-art cryptography. However, the interplay between “protecting information” and “sharing information” is as old as life on this planet. Don’t worry—we will not go back to the origins of evolution, but we will go back 2,500 years: the term “cryptography” originates from Ancient Greek and means “secret writing”.
Herodotus, the famous historian, describes how the Spartans in the 5th century BC concealed messages on wax tablets: only those in the know understood how to reveal the hidden message beneath by melting the surface. Clever, yes. Cryptography? No.
Herodotus is also often associated with the description of a fascinating encryption device known as the scytale—Ancient Greek for “staff”. However, this was only described later by Plutarch, around 110 AD.
According to him, cryptography played a decisive role in the war between Persia and Sparta: Sparta was at a disadvantage and faced imminent conquest. In this precarious situation, something emerged that marketing professionals today might call an “information technology innovation” or “groundbreaking mobile transport encryption”. What did Sparta need for this?
- Parchment and writing tools
- Leather and embossing tools
- Two identical cylindrical rods
- Skilled riders
- Fast horses
How was the message transmitted? At the point of origin, text was written onto a strip that had been wound around a rod. The message only made sense when read along the length of the rod. Without the rod—when viewed solely as a strip or worn as a belt by the messengers—the sequence of characters appeared merely decorative. However, anyone who was initiated and possessed a matching rod could decipher the message. The ingenious scytale.
Today, many cryptographic methods coexist—yet confidentiality, authenticity, and integrity remain the central principles of cryptology. Perhaps the most widely known example is encrypted messaging, implemented with varying levels of sophistication depending on the provider. Through asymmetric encryption, messages can only be read when the sending and receiving keys—when sender and receiver “rods”—match.
At ICO.Link, we work with hashing technologies. How exactly this works, and whether there is still a “rod and strip”, will be explained in the next article.
Image: AI-generated image of a scytale created by ICO-LUX using Leonardo.ai (not a historically accurate depiction)