The book was interesting and appeared well researched but the writing a little amateurish. My biggest complaint though is that the book was misbound with about 25 pages not appearing at all and 25 pages being repeated twice, once backwards. Very annoying.

This book is one of the most highly-rated non-fiction books on Amazon, and for good reason. I won't reiterate the other reviews except to say that the clarity of presentation of complex material is extraordinary. The one caveat is that the book is now ten years old, so you'll need to look for something beyond this to bring you up to the present.

I got this book for a class at UCSD. It was a good read, even though the professor skipped over more than half of it.

This book has many fascinating and important stories to tell, and some of them are told remarkably well. Still, if you're expecting "The Code Book" to be as compelling or well-fashioned as Singh's thoroughly absorbing "Fermat's Enigma," you will likely be disappointed. Which is not to say it's a waste of time. "The Code Book" demonstrates Singh's ability to bring historical characters and events to life, sometimes to great effect. And it covers a respectable amount of territory. That said, I think Singh can do better, and I hope one day he decides to revisit this one and work it over a bit.

I have three main issues with the book.

First, Singh glosses over or completely ignores significant details. For example, while he expertly tells the story of Mary Queen of Scots, he forgets to address one crucial question: How did Mary and her scheming cohorts agree upon a key for their cryptography? The way Singh tells the story, it seems impossible for them to have established a secret key, for their correspondence was intercepted from the start. Those reading their encrypted messages would already have had the key. Yet, Singh's narrative relies on there having been a secret key, because he makes a big deal about when and how their cipher was broken. So how was the secret key established? Singh doesn't say. This simple omission makes Singh's otherwise well-told story deeply problematic. Another example: Singh does not explain the Enigma machine very well, leaving out many details which could have at least been relegated to another appendix. The book has ten appendices already. What's one more?

Second, Singh is inconsistent at times. It often feels like he didn't have the time or patience to carefully organize his thoughts. To take one example, he believes that quantum cryptography is absolutely secure, because it cannot be broken even in theory; yet, he also notes that there are ways of intercepting messages before they are encrypted (for example, by reading electromagnetic signals from a computer as its keys are being struck). The logical conclusion is that no form of encryption can guarantee absolute privacy, even if it is theoretically unbreakable. Yet, Singh suggests that global quantum encryption could mean the end of privacy and thus of civilization as we know it. This could be a case of choosing drama over accuracy, or it could just be the result of sloppy thinking. Either way, it's annoying.

Lastly, Singh feels the need to spell out a good many concepts repeatedly, in excruciatingly simple detail. This might be necessary for a small percentage of his readers, but I found it mind-numbing. Eventually I decided to completely skip over paragraphs that began with the words, "To understand this more clearly . . ." or anything of that sort.

All in all, I'm not sorry I read this book, and I would not discourage most people from reading it--especially those looking for a very basic introduction to the history of codes and ciphers. To his credit, Singh explains at the outset that this is not meant to be a comprehensive treatment of its subject. Yet, I cannot help but think that he could have done a better job if only he (and his editors) spent a little more time on it. A revised edition is in order, in which the flaws in the original are corrected, and in which the present (and future) of codes and ciphers is given an update.

This book has captured everything about Cryptography - past, present and developments taking place for future use. It makes amply clear need of good encryption mechanism especially in information age. Two points, which I found very useful, are:

1) Algorithms can be broken in a radically different and un-expected way. For example just by looking at rate of occurrence of characters in a plain text, substitution cipher was broken. This highlight need for out of box thinking.

In contrast, natural language of tribal people used by USA in Second World War instead of mechanized encryption turned out to be difficult to break.

2) Al least one way exists to safely encrypt/decrypt data. Use different random numbers to encrypt/decrypt each character of data using simple substitution cipher mechanism. Practical complexity is another thing but fact that such logic exists makes me feel good.

Easy to read,good information if you enjoy this type of thing as much as I do.

This book is about cryptology (a term that includes both code making or cryptography and code breaking or cryptanalysis). However, the primary focus is not the science of cryptology or its history although both are covered in sufficient detail. It is, rather, on people; the people who made the codes, the people who broke the codes and the people whose lives were affected by the codes. The book proceeds in a chronological manner as it follows the age old war between code makers and code breakers from the distant past to well into the future.

Singh explains the not-so-easy mathematics and technology behind code making and breaking in a vivid and very accessible style. Elusive topics such as the operation of the Enigma, the mathematics of RSA and the principals of quantum cryptology are so well explained that most readers will grasp them with a single reading. It is hard not to be inspired by this book. Many times you will find yourselves grabbing a sheet of papers and attempting to work out the codes yourself. The book provides a set of ciphers to work on your own and a list of further reading for those interested to follow up on Alice, Bob and Eve (hypothetical characters used to explain techniques in cryptology).

"Uijt jb b gjof cppl" replace each letter by the one that precedes it in the alphabet and you get "This is a fine book". This simple cipher, called the Cesar shift cipher, is one of the earliest known ciphers and is discussed in the first chapter which covers cryptology from ancient Greece until the fourteenth century and narrates the gripping tale of Mary Queen of the Scots. The second chapter covers the evolution of both cryptology and cryptanalysis until the 20th century and narrates, among others, the mysterious tale of Beales ciphers. The third and fourth chapters cover the evolution of cryptology during the first and second world wars and mainly concentrate on the operation and the cracking of the famous German Enigma machine. The fifth chapter covers the Navajo code talkers used by the US in WW2 as well as the inspiring tales of decipherment of Hieroglyphics mainly by Champollion and of Linear B by, among others, Michael Ventris. Chapters six and seven are about Modern Cryptology. They covers the story behind the ground breaking advancements in cryptography, e.g. public key cryptography, that fueled internet communication and commerce. It also ponders in some detail over the issue of privacy versus security. Chapter eight is about the future of Cryptology and how both code makers and code breakers are starting to make use of Quantum mechanics to take cryptology to a whole new level.

As mentioned earlier, this book is about people and it does a good job in paying tribute to many of the usually unsung heroes of cryptology.

All said, this is one of the most gripping, amusing and rewarding general science books; it even has instruction on hiding a message within a hardboiled egg!!

This is an incredible book that walks the reader through the history of Cryptography in a form that is very easy and enjoyable to read. It stays at a pretty high level through most of the book but has enough technical detail to really help the reader understand the cryptograhic methods. This book has motivated me to continue my study of Cryptography.

This is a great read, more of a series of short interesting stories about codemakers and codebreakers. It goes into some technical detail of methods used in cryptoanalysis for the more technically minded, extremely well researched with all the historical facts. One of the few books I read a second time.

If you guys have seen David Kahn's Codebreakers, then you must understand that the subject of cryptography is deep in variable and can be seen as one of the genius things occuring in history. However, if you prefer a smaller, quicker read, then this would definitely be it.

You'd think that something like this would be boring with all it's mathematical structures and algorithmic matrices, and even confusing at times, but Simon Singh describes his target subject very well. You will learn of the first methods of hiding methods, and several different methods of scrambling a method. You will learn about the DES (Data Encryption Standard), and about the many people that made such things possible. You will understand that there were several political figures in the past that have used ciphers to discover someone planning to conspire against them or planning to assassinate them, and it will even give you some history on the mysterious Beale cipher that supposedly has never been solved because a key was never given, although the man given these papers successfully deciphered one of these papers with the Declaration of Independence.

Overall, this book was a very engaging read, an excellent covered subject, and was definitely worth such explanation. I hope in the future when they create the newer and bigger Data Encryption Standard, I'm there to understand how it came about and where it originated from (Maybe being a second version of the RSA cipher (Or in simpler terms the Rivest-Shamin-Adleman cipher)).

Amazing and touching stories with incredible insights of knowledge. Cryptography becomes interesting, intriguing, fun and highly readable under the author's writings. I never bother to write a book review and I think it is only fair to write one and recommend it to the readers for all the efforts the author has put into this book.

It is also very educational to kids even they are not into science (how can they not to if just be "naturally" curious) . For example, the story of Decipherment of Linear B. And it is also a very moving story behind how ARS becomes RSA of public key cryptography. I see the integrity and dignity of those intellectuals. Apparently they are the role models for kids.

This book worths million dollars more to me.

Just like a thriller novel. Outstanding quality of writing!! Illustrated mathematical ideas with nice analogies and went for intution rather than mathematical rigor. You can find the exciting turns of history of code making and breaking.

This book is not just for geeks! It's very readable, no difficult math, plenty of figures supporting the text, many witty asides. Not the least bit dull. It traces the development of message concealment - and discovery - from early times to the near-present, and credits those who played notable parts in this history. Of special interest to me was the account of the WWII codebreakers at Britain's Bletchley Park, their methods, nachinery(!) and accomplishments. The sheer wartime volume of intercepted encrypted messages meant that great numbers of men (and women) had to be recruited to Bletchley, and they had to be promising producers; you'll be amused at how they were chosen.

I especially liked the long chapter on the decyphering of the Rosetta Stone and the "Linear B" texts, and the light that such cast on our knowledge of ancient civilizations, their societies and languages.

I think the book is in excellent condition. Very pleased with both the book and the vendor. Price was right and delivery was very quick.

This book was a little bit disappointing. Simon Singh is usually more exciting, but in this book he is a little bit too UK-centered. For instance, he gives an extensive description and history of the decoding of the German ENIGMA code by the British, but only a few words on the American decoding of the Japanese Purple code. As a general introduction to coding and decoding, it could have been shorter, as a detailed introduction, then it should have covered more areas.

I bought this book because I'm interested in cryptology but do not have the time to dig deep into specialist books. The book did not dissapoint me - it is well written, not too technical but doesn't 'dumb down' the essence of cryptology too much. The only reason why I wouldn't want to give it 5 stars is that it is a bit dated. Written quite obviously before 9/11, it is a bit too optimistic on the outcome of the battle between code makers and code breakers.

A good book, fun to read, and relatively easy to grasp.

"The Code Book" presents readers with a beautifully composed account of the history of cryptography. It is written in such a way to keep the technically inclined satisfied without overloading the average reader. Singh does an excellent job at presenting technical material.

This book maintains a high level of drama and excitement, constantly sparking imagination and occasionally encouraging readers to try their own hand at cryptography.

I definitely recommend this book to anyone remotely interested in history, information technology, or politics. It's an excellent read.

More than a history of cryptography, this book could be called a set of
stories about the topic. Which is not a demerit, on the contrary, adds
amenity to a topic that on one hand is interesting and entertaining (who
doesn't like to keep one's secrets and break those of others?) but on
the other hand may be hard (the mathematics and algorithms). The author
copes very well with the fun part and really quite well with the other
part, taking into account that this is not a text book but a informational
and even recreational book.
A reader not familiar with algorithms or computing may still be able to
grasp most of the ideas and every reader will surely enjoy of the well
documented stories on which the book is built. The language is clear
and simple (I am not an English native speaker and nevertheless I can
read it quite easily) so I think that even children of about 12 y.o.
and up may find the book interesting.

In the Code Book, Simon Singh takes us on a fascinating journey through cryptography from ancient Egypt to to the modern. He touches on many historical figures and their contributions to modern day cryptography. Personalities such as: Charles Babbage (the grandfather of computing), Alan Turing (creator of the Turing Machine, the father of modern computer science), Ronald Rivest, Adi Shamir, and Leon Adleman (the men behind RSA encryption), and Phil Zimmermann.

This book was enlightening as it put the cryptography mechanisms we employ today into a historical context while describing their complex inner workings and presenting the rich history that lies behind all innovation. Like other reviewers, I was also disappointed that the book came to a close so soon. I'm looking forward to reading Singh's other books.

You will learn all about how secret communications through code have created the history of europe, middle east and other nations. Just get this book.

I've been developing an interest in physics as well as cryptography. I was turned on to Singh's The Code Book simply because it mentioned quantum physics in the title, a happy intersection between my two new hobby subjects. Soon after cracking it open, I realized that I'd picked up one of my favorite books in the past few years.

Singh does a great job of laying out the history of cryptography (code writing) and cryptanalysis (code breaking, essentially) as well as explaining the logic behind each of the codes he discusses. It's a fascinating history that builds and builds upon itself, making it clear to the reader how the cryptography readily available to him/her now was born. All the while, Singh's explanation of the thought behind the codes is clear enough for a non-math major to quickly grasp (i.e. myself).

I admit that the subject matter was right up my alley and this might not be the case for everyone, but I feel Singh's ability to weave a narrative into a convoluted subject (as it would be) is excellent and warrants a pick up. The history is sturdy enough to support just about any reader and the analysis of the logic is clear and simple to latch on to, even as it delves into some deeper details.

In all, this was a great read and I'd highly recommend picking it up.

This book does a really nice job tracing the history of cryptography and cryptanalyis (codemaking and codebreaking) through the ages. The author gives some high level overview of a code, a specific example and then some historical context for how a code was used. The level of detail is just right so that the average reader can understand the basic idea of a code but not be overwhelmed by the math.

Hello there guys,
I really recommend this book as it is really entertaining. You get to know many interesting personalities from the crypto world and it's full of curiosities and stories about how cryptography changed the course of history and how it evolved over the centuries till today. If you are looking for a technical book on cryptographic algorithms, this is not that kind of book. It's meant to be read by everyone, therefore the technical part is kept easy and doesn't do any in-depth coverage.
Good luck and enjoy it,
Leandro

As always Simon Singn takes the reader on a fantastic trip through History. Filled with entertaining stories, puzzles and heroic events, the author skillfully covers the history of secret writing. If you liked his coverage of Fermat's Enigma then you will definitely enjoy this book.

The prose is capturing, deep enough to fascinate technical readers and light enough to just entertain the casual reader. I specialized in Quantum computers while studying Mathematics and I am astonished that the author manages to explain such non-trivial subjects as quantum computers and cryptography to the degree where ordinary readers can actually understand how they work and their impact on ciphers such as RSA/DSA. In short another great read from one of the best and most entertaining technical writers who ever lived.

Simon Singh books usually hold you from the first page and till the end. "The code book" is very well written and very informative. You will see how it's started and where cryptography goes, but even more interesting part of history of cryptography - life (sometimes secret life) of people who worked and continue to work on development of cryptosystems.

Nutshell review - This is an excellent book covering the history of cryptography up to present day and into the near future. Very well written, easy to understand and worth reading by any layperson interested in the topic.

If you want to know about codes, secrets, cryptography and cryptanalysis then this is the book. Simon Singh presents the history of codes in a clear and simple way. Without the mathematics to disturb the flow of the story, you enjoy plots, conspiracies, secrets and algorithms. Excellent for general knowledge and for an introductory text in cryptanalysis. Buy it!

great book regarding the history of cryptography. The only way to truly understand anything is c the history of it's introduction

For a book on cryptology from a historical perspective it's really hard to believe it would be as entertaining as Singh makes it. Using his skill as an author he weaves history, technology, and methods of encryption together to explain topics that normally would leave many of us in the blind.

The most interesting thing about the whole book is that as you begin to read up on forms of encryption and decryption you begin to absorb yourself into the whole culture. One chapter describes the Beale Ciphers, a set of ciphers that gained popularity especially in the early 1900s and still are significant today linking to a fabulous treasure and yet still remaining unbroken. I remember spending the day after reading up on it thinking of ways I'd try to break the cipher. Not many books fill your mind with such rich images and excitement as this book seems to.

Generally, the book is wonderful and has enough to keep you hooked until the very end despite its historical nature.

Simon Singh does a very clever thing. He takes comlex topics and makes them understandable without dumming down the science or math.

The book is clear, entertaining, and just in general very well written. The book provides an overview of the subject, and its history. I highly recommend it as a primer to the field of Cryptology.

If you have never read a Simon Singh book, it's time to begin now! While most Singh books can seem a bit boring when you read the synopsis (can a book about codes really be interesting??), this is not the case. He has a wonderfull way of explaining complicated things in an understandable way. I will also highly recommend "Fermat's enigma" and "Big bang".

As a mathematician in the early 1970s, I saw many advertisements recruiting mathematicians for the CIA. I knew that it had to do with cryptography and number theory but it was all very mysterious and since I never got a job with them I didn't see precisely how the disciplines fit together. As Singh describes the discover of the RSA coding system it all becomes very clear.
The story he tells is particularly interesting because it starts with the ancient Romans and the decoding of the conspiracy messages of Mary Queen of Scots in Elizabethian England.

Singh also wrote an very interesting account in layman's terms of the discoveries that led to the proof of Fermat's last theorem. That skill is also demonstrated in this book where the key concepts of cryptgraphy are discussed as they were developed through history. The uses of cryptography in World War I and World War II are brought out. We learn of the men in England at Bletchley Park who were able to decypher the German Enigma Machine and play a major role in the latter success of the allies. The gain of information from the U boats enabled the Americans to transport supplies and soldiers to Europe to fight the war. The U boats were very successful at destroying American ships prior to the breaking of the code.

It is interesting that after the war the academic community in the United States solved the problem of key passing for computer networks and developed the RSA code. These discovery were developed earlier and independently in England at their secret agency the Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ) based on the unheralded ideas of James Ellis. Their work was kept secret until the late 1990s when their achievements were finally brought to light.

The book also discusses the archaeological work on the Rosetta Stone and Linear B. This work uncovered the meaning of the hieroglyphics and showed that the Minoans language was a form of Greek. The techniques were very much akin to deciphering code.

Also of interest is the Navajo code talkers who used their language as an unbreakable code during the war in the Pacific in World War II.

Recent developments and conjectures about future breakthroughs are discussed in the last few chapters. The book provides very useful information about other books and interesting web sites including one that allows you to download Zimmerman's Pretty Good Privacy (PGP) which provides RSA level security.

This is a wonderful book, well written, suitable to both curious reader and professional. It is suitable to the curious reader because all the explanations are very well written such that its not so hard to follow the flow of ideas. And it is suitable to the professional because the author gives an historical perspective of the use of codes and ciphers and the reasons of the improvements.

Finally but not less important, the write style make the short biographies and the histories a very enjoyable reading.

"The Code Book" is a highly readable, engaging and informative book on cryptology (the science of code-making and code-breaking). The book covers the evolution of secrecy across time and addresses the current state of this science.

For those interested in codes in general, this is a staple book...highly recommended.

I found it interesting and well written. Relize Simon is a Brit, so slightly a different type of sentence structure. I found sometimes that I just could not put the book down. I found out about the book from MAA. It's a college Math Mag playing with Hamming Code. Got interested in the artical about the book and then purchased it. Out of the three cyrpto books I bought this was the best. Others focused on the mathmatics and were not translated well from German.

This great book might on one hand be seen as an introduction to
cryptography (producing codes) and cryptanalysis (breaking codes), and on
the other hand as an anthology of slightly dramatized biographies of
certain individuals, throughout the whole history of codes and ciphers,
related to corresponding major events.

The style of the book is a successful and well-structured mixture of
popular science at its best and somewhat rigorous descriptions of
concepts and algorithms of various complexity. It starts off with telling
the story of the so called 'cipher of Mary Queen of Scots', then
successively deals with, for instance, the initial invention of a
theoretically unbreakable code (through using random numbers) and its
practical drawbacks, the rise and fall of the Enigma code, the usage of
codes in the form of unusual (hopefully unknown to the enemy or opponent)
languages, the analysis of ancient forgotten languages, privacy issues
including safe transfering of code keys and, finally, ends with
discussions of modern, and possibly future, cryptography/cryptanalysis-
techniques based on quantum computers and theory.

Moreover, additional interesting, and in some instances somewhat more
technical, material is referred to several appendices.

Note: The swedish translated edition includes quite a lot of Sweden-specific
information. (Translator: Margareta Brogren.) In all respects this is a
most impressive piece of work!

This great book might on one hand be seen as an introduction to
cryptography (producing codes) and cryptanalysis (breaking codes), and on
the other hand as an anthology of slightly dramatized biographies of
certain individuals, throughout the whole history of codes and ciphers,
related to corresponding major events.

The style of the book is a successful and well-structured mixture of
popular science at its best and somewhat rigorous descriptions of
concepts and algorithms of various complexity. It starts off with telling
the story of the so called 'cipher of Mary Queen of Scots', then
successively deals with, for instance, the initial invention of a
theoretically unbreakable code (through using random numbers) and its
practical drawbacks, the rise and fall of the Enigma code, the usage of
codes in the form of unusual (hopefully unknown to the enemy or opponent)
languages, the analysis of ancient forgotten languages, privacy issues
including safe transfering of code keys and, finally, ends with
discussions of modern, and possibly future, cryptography/cryptanalysis-
techniques based on quantum computers and theory.

Moreover, additional interesting, and in some instances somewhat more
technical, material is referred to several appendices.

Note: The swedish translated edition includes quite a lot of Sweden-specific
information. (Translator: Margareta Brogren.) In all respects this is a
most impressive piece of work!

Great Book! A fun read and very interesting. A history of code making and code breaking from the beginning until now.

Singh has provided the reader a delightful history of encryption, beginning with 16th-century codes, proceeding with the mechanized ones, and concluding with modern computer-based systems. He points out how modern encryption is being used to thwart the counterfeiting of dollars, and rejects the so-called Bible Code.

Singh also touches on the intricacies of language, and discusses the difficulty of deciphering the Egyptian hieroglyphics. This involved the decoding of a language that no one speaks today, and one which has no close relatives among modern languages. He also has a fascinating account of the Navajo Indians and their unique language, and how their conversations were used to keep the Japanese in the dark during WWII.

When in comes to the German ENIGMA code of WWII, and in contrast to some English-language books on this subject, Singh gives credit squarely where it is due. He traces the Polish successes with code-breaking, beginning with the cracking of Russian codes by the Biuro Szyfrow (the Bureau of Ciphers) during the 1920 Polish-Bolshevik War (p. 144). In the years before WWII, a Polish team of mathematicians headed by Marian Rejewski recognizably solved the ENIGMA (p. 155). The Poles were ten years ahead of anyone else in this field (p. 160). The later successes of the British at Bletchley relied on Rejewski's work (p. 170), and followed the lead of the Poles (p. 243). Alan Turing followed Rejewski's strategy (p. 171).

this book is one of the best books i have read in a while. it explanes everything you want tok now about cryptography and how to break the codes. this author knows his stuff.

This is a classic work on secret writing and cryptography. I have had copies of it in the past. Somehow they disappear. Now there is a fresh copy on the shelf. If you have an interest in puzzles and in history this is a good one to have even if you are not particulary interested in secret writing or encryption.

An entertaining and informative book about the history of codes by Simon Singh, an English physicist of Indian descent who had previously written a very good tome about Fermat's last theorem. Highlights of the book are discussions of the Enigma machine and its decipherement during World War II by Marian Rejewski and Alan Turing, the decipherement of the ancient greek alphabet called Lineal B (not strictly a secret code, but a fascinating story nonetheless) and the more modern developements of public key and quantum cryptography (the latter one, still in development, promises the long sought dream of an unbreakable code). The book does not presuppose previous mathematical knowledge, though the later chapters do require some intense concentration on the part on the reader.

Wow, wow, wow. I have never read a book faster than this one. I couldn't put it down!



I don't want to spoil any of the incredible stories found within, so I'll just describe the book's two main strengths.



Firstly, the explanations of increasingly complex cyphers, all the way down to quantum cryptography, were insanely good. As an example, the workings of Enigma, the sophisticated encryption machine used by the Nazis, became transparent after reading this book.



Equally important, the encryption methods described in the book are masterfully tied in with their historical context, much of which is not widely known because much of the material was classified for a very long time. I think you will be amazed by how much of history was decided by the strength and weaknesses of various cyphers. I was.



In short, go read this book. It is extremely entertaining and (bonus!) extremely informative.

This was a very easy reading book-- in spite of the level of sophistication of some of the ideas. It is also very good how the author reviews just enough math for what you will need to know in order to understand some of the ideas in codebreaking.

There are also lots of nuggets of knowledge for people who like trivia-- such as the contribution of the Navajo to the war effort by the use of their language, or the Poles to codebreaking technology because of their being in between two hostile neighbors. It is also often not understood the level of aggression of the Germans during WWII and how much thought went into the military strategies of the various nations.

The prose is clear and concise. This is defnitely worth a second read.

As a final testatment to how absorbing this book was: I read most of it on a train traveling through China while seated in a car that held about 150 other people (in spite of being designed for 105), and that was so crowded that it was not possible to move down the aisles. This book kept me busy for almost the whole train ride.

This book is coherent, really well written. If you just a bit enjoy math & ciphers you must read it.

The Author uses key events in history to explain how the codemakers were engaged in a battle of wits with the codebreakers (cryptanalysts) of the opposite camp, and why at different times either side prevailed, thus influencing the course of history.
While codemakers started with upper hand from the era of Romans to Arabs, the codebreakers start to strike back by deciphering cipher codes like the substitution and vignere ciphers using techniques like frequency analysis. We then see how codebreakers played their role in victory during protestant-catholic power struggle in England , and other occasions including Crimean war, World War I . It was with the mechanised encrypting machine Enigma that the Codemakers made a comeback, presenting a severe challenge to the cryptanalysts during World War II. Though Navajo language based codes were successfully employed by the US during WW II, this period marked the time when cryptanalysis slowly moved away from the domain of linguists to the mathematicians. Enigma was eventually cracked by the expert mathematicians from Poland and England. Turing who cracked the modified Enigma so crucial to allied victory, was a key figure in early development of computers (a Turing award is equivalent to a nobel prize in computers).
With Enigma cracked, the codebreakers had once again the upperhand. Key distribution was a weak link often open to theft and spying, which always left it vulnerable. Diffie-hellman-Merkle came up with the solution of public key cryptography, where the common key was calculated locally without being distributed on any medium. It would take enormous resources of distributed computing to break the key, which requires either government organisations like NSA or large collobaration in Internet.
Finally the ethical dilemma of privacy vs security is discussed. Should Governments allow private citizens to have the capability to generate unbreakable codes, or should it retain its capability to break into any codes.
The promise of Quantum crytography to provide unbreakable code guaranteed by physical law, will be a headache for future government policy makers.

The Author uses key events in history to explain how the codemakers were engaged in a battle of wits with the codebreakers (cryptanalysts) of the opposite camp, and why at different times either side prevailed, thus influencing the course of history.
While codemakers started with upper hand from the era of Romans to Arabs, the codebreakers start to strike back by deciphering cipher codes like the substitution and vignere ciphers using techniques like frequency analysis. We then see how codebreakers played their role in victory during protestant-catholic power struggle in England , and other occasions including Crimean war, World War I . It was with the mechanised encrypting machine Enigma that the Codemakers made a comeback, presenting a severe challenge to the cryptanalysts during World War II. Though Navajo language based codes were successfully employed by the US during WW II, this period marked the time when cryptanalysis slowly moved away from the domain of linguists to the mathematicians. Enigma was eventually cracked by the expert mathematicians from Poland and England. Turing who cracked the modified Enigma so crucial to allied victory, was a key figure in early development of computers (a Turing award is equivalent to a nobel prize in computers).
With Enigma cracked, the codebreakers had once again the upperhand. Key distribution was a weak link often open to theft and spying, which always left it vulnerable. Diffie-hellman-Merkle came up with the solution of public key cryptography, where the common key was calculated locally without being distributed on any medium. It would take enormous resources of distributed computing to break the key, which requires either government organisations like NSA or large collobaration in Internet.
Finally the ethical dilemma of privacy vs security is discussed. Should Governments allow private citizens to have the capability to generate unbreakable codes, or should it retain its capability to break into any codes.
The promise of Quantum crytography to provide unbreakable code guaranteed by physical law, will be a headache for future government policy makers.

This is a good book to provide a minimal background for most people for the subject of encryption. For many this might not be an exciting subject. But thanks to this book it helps explain its relevance and history. Besides providing a background on encryption it highlights a story about a true hero of great genius. Unfortunately as the story unfolds he will be maligned and harassed until he ends his life, just because he was homosexual. Regardless of his choice of partners, his work and mind were brilliant.

This is a good book to provide a minimal background for most people for the subject of encryption. For many this might not be an exciting subject. But thanks to this book it helps explain its relevance and history. Besides providing a background on encryption it highlights a story about a true hero of great genius. Unfortunately as the story unfolds he will be maligned and harassed until he ends his life, just because he was homosexual. Regardless of his choice of partners, his work and mind were brilliant.