How Alan Turing still casts his genius in the age of cyberwar
metro.co.ukLGBT+ History Month that tolerance can be beneficial to all in society. In November, MI5’s director general traced the line when he referenced a partnership between the UK security agency and scientific charity The Alan Turing Institute.
Giving his annual threat update, Ken McCallum said: ‘Our other big push is constantly to improve the way data is obtained and analysed. ‘That means MI5 forming cutting-edge partnerships such as with The Alan Turing Institute, and valuing data scientists and engineers just as we do agent runners and investigators.’ The pressing need to protect against cyber-threats from hostile states such as Russia, China and Iran — and the rapid advance of AI — has thrown Turing’s work into new light, 82 years after his death.
James Turing, his great-nephew and founder of The Turing Trust, told Metro.co.uk: ‘When I was a child Alan’s legacy wasn’t very well known because it had only been unclassified a little bit before I was born. ‘In the years since The Alan Turing Institute has been named after him, which I am sure he would be very proud of, so to see the Institute itself is now having those collaborations with the likes of MI5 is a very nice way of showing how Alan’s legacy continues.
In some senses codebreaking has led into cyber-security. ‘With the machines that he worked on, such as the Bombe and the Colossus, you can see the origins of how cyber-warfare became a part of life, not to mention the rest of us worrying about getting our emails hacked.
