Sinkov, Abraham

Born in Philadelphia , into a family of Jewish immigrants from Russia, raised in Brooklyn , graduated from City College of New York in New York, after which he taught mathematics at schools in New York for some time. In 1930, Sinkov, along with his school friend Solomon Kulbak, received a job offer for civil service, and were hired as junior cryptanalysts , although at that time they still had no idea what kind of work it was. At this time, Wolf Friedman formed the staff of the American radio intelligence service . A. Sinkov and S. Kulbak became the third and fourth employees of this organization.

Wolf Friedman taught young cryptography employees through special training at the Fort Meade camp. His graduates received the ranks of reserve officers, and Sinkov and Kulbak also received doctorates in mathematics (Sinkov received his doctorate in 1933 at George Washington University ). In 1936, A. Sinkov was assigned to the Panama Canal Zone , where he organized the first US Army radio interception post outside the United States.

Thanks to the success of cryptanalysts, Japanese diplomatic codes were hacked after 1935, which contributed to the growth of credibility of the American intelligence service, as well as an increase in its funding by the US government and an increase in the number of staff.

In 1940, the United States and Great Britain began an exchange of materials decrypted by cryptanalysts, which demonstrated the considerable success of the British in breaking German codes, and their American counterparts in Japanese codes. This led to an unprecedented level of cooperation in electronic intelligence between the two countries during World War II .

In January-April 1941, A. Sinkov, with the rank of captain, was part of a delegation of American intelligence services in the United Kingdom to exchange information on programs for deciphering enemy codes. A. Sinkov and his colleagues visited Bletchley Park - the headquarters of British cryptographers, and also exchanged information on German and Japanese code systems. It is still unclear to what extent the British dedicated the American delegation to the details of the hacked codes of the Enigma German encryption machine. The mission to the UK was generally successful and contributed to the further development of cooperation between British and American cryptologists.

After the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, the Japanese army also attacked the Philippine Islands . General D. MacArthur was ordered to leave the Philippines and establish a base for the US Army in Australia . MacArthur, realizing the need for decryption service, by his order on April 15, 1942 created the Central Bureau of Radio Intelligence in Melbourne (later it was relocated to Brisbane ). In July 1942, Sinkov arrived in Melbourne as the head of the American branch of the Central Bureau. The Central Bureau was formally headed by General S. Aikin, but in reality he rarely appeared in this organization, in fact, the Central Bureau was led by Sinkov, who showed good organizational skills and was able to form a united team of Americans and Australians in a short time. The activities of the Central Bureau contributed to the success of the actions of the American army in the air war against the Japanese and allowed to gain a number of victories in operations in New Guinea and the Philippines.

After the war, A. Sinkov served in the Army Security Agency (ASA) , and in 1949, when the Armed Forces Security Agency (AFSA) was created - the first centralized critographic organization in the United States, Sinkov became the head of the communications security program and retained this position during the reorganization of the agency in the NSA in 1952.

In 1954, A. Sinkov became the second NSA officer who graduated from the National Military College (the first was L. Tordella ). Returning to the NSA, he became deputy director, swapping places with his old colleague Frank Rowlett . A. Sinkov retired from the NSA in 1962 with the rank of colonel.

In 1966, he wrote the book Elementary Cryptanalysis: A Mathematical Approach , this was one of the first cryptography books available to the general public.

After completing his 32-year career at the NSA, A. Sinkov worked as a professor of mathematics at Arizona State University .

He died in 1998, his name is immortalized in the Hall of Fame of the US Military Intelligence and the Hall of Fame of the US National Security Agency ^[1] .

• Sinkov, Abraham. Elementary cryptanalysis: a mathematical approach . - Washington: Mathematical Association of America , 2009. - ISBN 9780883859377 .