The Code Book: The Science of Secrecy from Ancient Egypt to Quantum CryptographyIn his first book since the bestselling Fermat's Enigma, Simon Singh offers the first sweeping history of encryption, tracing its evolution and revealing the dramatic effects codes have had on wars, nations, and individual lives. From Mary, Queen of Scots, trapped by her own code, to the Navajo Code Talkers who helped the Allies win World War II, to the incredible (and incredibly simple) logisitical breakthrough that made Internet commerce secure, The Code Book tells the story of the most powerful intellectual weapon ever known: secrecy. Throughout the text are clear technical and mathematical explanations, and portraits of the remarkable personalities who wrote and broke the world's most difficult codes. Accessible, compelling, and remarkably far-reaching, this book will forever alter your view of history and what drives it. It will also make you wonder how private that e-mail you just sent really is. |
Contents
The Cipher of Mary Queen of Scots | 1 |
Le Chiffre Indechiffrable | 45 |
The Mechanization of Secrecy | 101 |
Copyright | |
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Common terms and phrases
Alice and Bob Alice's American asymmetric cipher Babbage Babington Beale ciphers began Bletchley Park Bob's breakthrough British cartouche century Champollion cipher alphabet ciphertext codebook codebreakers codemakers communications contained crack cryptanalysts day key decipher decipherment decrypt detector Diffie digits disk e-mail enciphered encrypted message encryption enemy English Enigma machine example Figure French frequency analysis GCHQ German Greek Hellman hieroglyphics idea intercepted Internet key distribution keyword Linear Mary mathematics message key military Minoan monoalphabetic cipher monoalphabetic substitution cipher one-way function onetime pad operator padlock photons plain alphabet plaintext plaintext letter polarized photons possible keys private key problem public key cryptography quantum computer quantum cryptography radio random receiver Rejewski represented result scrambler scrambler arrangement scrambler settings script secret sender sequence swapped syllable symbols Table tion Turing unbreakable Ventris Vigenère cipher Vigenère square vowel wiretaps words Zimmermann