Cryptologic section

Communications security has always been essential in the world of Intelligence. The emergence of the Internet brought about a revolution in this field that led to the establishment of the Centro Criptológico Nacional; nevertheless, previously numerous encryption and decryption elements had already been used.

The cryptologic section of the Centro Nacional de Inteligencia’s Museum, with restricted access, was created in 2015 with the aim of publicising the evolution of the encryption systems that have been used throughout the 20th century to guarantee the secrecy of communications. Manual encryption methods used in the Spanish Civil War and the Second World War are exhibited, as well as mechanical methods, including different ENIGMA models (developed between 1927-1932), the KRYHA cipher machine and its pocket version, and HAGELIN CRYPTOS machines from the 1950s.