The science of secrecy: The secret history of codes and codebreaking

by Simon Singh

A TV tie-in edition of "The Code Book" filmed as a prime-time five-part Channel 4 series on the history of codes and code-breaking and presented by the author. This book, which accompanies the major Channel 4 series, brings to life the hidden history of codes and code breaking. Since the birth of writing, there has also been the need for secrecy. The story of codes is the story of the brilliant men and women who used mathematics, linguistics, machines, computers, gut instinct, logic and detective work to encrypt and break these secrect messages and the effect their work has had on history. In each episode of "The Science of Secrecy" Simon Singh tells us a fascinating story from the history of how the course of Crimean War was changed by the cracking of "unbreakable" Vigenere code; how the well-timed cracking of a single encoded telegram altered the course of World War I or how the mysteries of the Rosetta stone were revealed. The programme, and book, also investigates present day concerns about privacy on the internet and public key cryptography and looks to the future and the possibilities that quantum computing will radically change the science of secrecy in the 21st century.

Genres: Nonfiction, History, Science, Engineering, Technology, Popular Science

240 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1999

About the author

Simon Lehna Singh, MBE is a British author who has specialised in writing about mathematical and scientific topics in an accessible manner. He is the maiden winner of the Lilavati Award.

His written works include Fermat's Last Theorem (in the United States titled Fermat's Enigma: The Epic Quest to Solve the World's Greatest Mathematical Problem), The Code Book (about cryptography and its history), Big Bang (about the Big Bang theory and the origins of the universe) and Trick or Treatment? Alternative Medicine on Trial (about complementary and alternative medicine).

He has also produced documentaries and works for television to accompany his books, is a trustee of NESTA, the National Museum of Science and Industry and co-founded the Undergraduate Ambassadors Scheme.

Reviews

[Jeff Waltersdorf · Rating 5 out of 5]

Enjoyable book. I haven't seen the BBC series that this book is a companion to, but I do want to seek it out. A nice combination of history and anecdotes putting the development of codes and codebreaking in good perspective. Enough math detail to follow the major developments. Bonus points for the "homework" assignments at the end--five encoded messages of increasing difficulty levels that you can practice on.

It's several years old now, but the "modern era" stuff is still interesting and relevant, if the exact computer specifications are now dated.

It was fascinating to read this at the same time as I was working through Cory Doctorow's Little Brother (featuring a modern crypto network), and also watching the Frontline documentary United States of Secrets (about the post-9/11 growth of the NSA, through the Snowden revelations). This provided a nice primer of the history and the mathematics for both of those.

I've got a pair of Bruce Schneier books on cryptography that I now feel comfortable diving into soon.

[Andrew Lamb · Rating 5 out of 5]

I absolutely love this book. I read it after watching an interview with Simon Singh and was fascinated by espionage and cyphers.

The book unveils a history of codes and code breaking, almost a cat and mouse adventure really where monumental moments relied on a crucial code either being broken or holding its integrity.

As an engineer, I love all things mathematical. The Science of Secrecy was a captivating read. Although I suspect Simon set out to educate and tease, he has also created a dramatic background and a respect for the codemakers and codebreakers.

The book is very easy to pick up and very hard to put down. By the end of it, I was making up my own little codes.

Recommended to all.

[Shah Yasser Aziz · Rating 4 out of 5]

The book gives a brilliant overview of the history of cryptography and explains all types of cryptographic methods that emerged ever since the ancient times. These were layman explanations, hence i comprehended all of it. If you're learning about cryptography for the first time, go ahead and read it!

[Sheffielder · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great book! Well written, and well thought out. Definitely worth reading as a popular introduction to the field.

[Anurag · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very interesting and informative read

[Sheepdog · Rating 5 out of 5]

Outstanding. Does a good job of "building the story" from the beginnings of secret writing to the modern wonders, but doesn't "plod".

Also, it doesn't it get bogged down in too many minutiae... and again, "but"... but doesn't leave the reader frustrated by being too superficial.

Offers something for everything. If ciphers are "your thing", you will be in clover, but this is NOT a book just for the geeks. Not only does it discuss the inner workings of many ciphers, but it also discusses when and how secret writing made a difference in people's lives, to our history, going beyond the secret-writing elements of those stories along the way which I found interesting in themselves. But doesn't ever digress too far.

Very readable, if you have even a tiny willingness to follow a logical chain of operations.

Uses terms carefully, and explains the correct terminology for the areas covered.

o jp[r upi ;olr oy.

That isn't anything arcane, but I hope it amuses. I'm not good at mental arithmetic. Even so, I wrote it just now in less than half a minute, without recourse to scrap paper, pencil, etc. A nice illustration of a not-very-secure cipher that has the virtue of being easy for sender and receiver to use. Might also be useful for...

doyrvtrfd[sddeptfd

If you want to spend five minutes getting into each webpage that interests you, there are ciphers your could use to be "really secure". But if you raise just a LITTLE barrier to the Bad Guys, it may be enough to persuade them to ignore you, go after even lower hanging fruit. (By this logic you may want to hide easy-to-remember passwords behind a simple cipher.. or a code. Not the same thing! Explained in book.)

(If you spot errors-of-encryption in either of the mini-challenges above, they are just typos, not a tease to see who will write and say "you made a mistake...)

[Missy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Takes a journey through the history of ciphers, cryptography and cryptoanalysis. It was written before the events of 11 September 2001, so it is somewhat dated in it's referencing to events and politicians in the "now", the internet and it's developments.

It is a useful place to start as it gives a nice overview without presuming any previous knowledge of ciphers, etc and there is very little in the way of bogging down in the details of each development described. A good introductory book, that also relates to a BBC production.