A very good book on Cryptography which is critical need in information age

books:

	• THE CODE BOOK SIMON SINGH FOURTH ESTATE LIMITED, 2000 - 402 pages average customer review:based on 271 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

Good book

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.

Fascinating!

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!!

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very informative with regard to the history of cryptography

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

A very good book on Cryptography which is critical need in information age

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.

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Interesting, but needs a little work

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.

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