The Science of Secrecy 68
Matthew Sparkes writes "Ever since the first codes and ciphers were developed, there has been a battle between those who want to keep their information secret, and those who want to read that information. It has been a purely intellectual war, but one that is often driven by motives from above that are far more violent. This book chronicles that battle, from it's inception, to the modern day, and outlines the techniques used to obfuscate information, and the fascinating history of the application of those techniques." Read the rest of Matthew's review.
The Science of Secrecy - The History of Codes and Codebreaking | |
author | Simon Singh |
pages | 224 |
publisher | Fourth Estate, London |
rating | 7 |
reviewer | Matthew Sparkes |
ISBN | 1841154350 |
summary | An historical look into cryptography and crypt-analysis, with a significant amount of technical knowledge to impart also. |
Cryptography has been a tool largely used by governments to avoid their communications being read by the enemy or other unfriendly states, but historically it has also been utilized by individuals to protect their more questionable or taboo activities from discovery.
This battle is presented in the book as a rather bipolar trend; cryptographers trying to protect data and crypt-analysts trying to discover the meaning of that data. I found this to be slightly misleading. The representation of the history of the field as a constant struggle between two distinct parties does make for a more entertaining read, and adds an element of conflict by conjuring images of an ancient and continual intellectual game, but in reality these two groups are often one and the same.
Whilst I admit that the race to develop stronger codes and ciphers was in many ways separate from the race to break them, they were also inextricably linked, and undertaken by the same people. One has to allow a certain amount of poetic license in popular science books, especially in this case, as it has lightened what could have been a dry topic.
The way in which the book is structured allows a complete novice access. Starting from the first discoveries in cryptography and working forward chronologically, whilst explaining the method behind the discoveries, educates the reader in basic technique without effort. One reads a fascinating historical account, and later realizes that they now have a good understanding of the mathematical concepts behind these approaches they've been reading of.
The book places these techniques into context, giving historical examples of their use. Often they are revealed to have played large and important parts in famous events, ranging from wars and political plots, to events which are not even strictly related to cryptography.
For example it is shown how crypt-analytic approaches were utilized in the deciphering of ancient languages such as hieroglyphics. These languages are dead, in that there are no living individuals who have the ability to read them, and no information was available to help in their deciphering. By studying the frequency of letters or symbols in the text, as when attempting to break a cipher, it was possible to slowly read meaning into the text, and map the alphabet.
Many of these scripts were decrypted by amateur crypt-analysts, rather than academics. One point the author makes is that there are still many that remain a mystery, such as the Etruscan and Indus scripts. One has to wonder whether a book like this, combined with the current national fixation with puzzles such as Soduko, would create a resurgence in interest, and lead to some of these being broken.
One interesting point that the book makes is that the vast majority of work performed by cryptographers is done in secret, largely for security agencies all over the world, and that this has been true for some time. Therefore it is not uncommon for crypt-analysts to receive no recognition for their work, or to have a discovery attributed to them long after their death. These organizations must classify the work in the interest of national security, so in a way this book stands as an anonymous tribute to their cunning and multidisciplinary talent.
Examples from the book of such discoveries include Charles Babbage breaking the Vigenere cipher in 1854, which only came to light in the 1970s. The author suggests that the work was kept secret to aid the Royal Navy, as it occurred just after the Crimean War started. The credit for the discovery instead fell to a retired Prussian army officer who independently discovered it in 1863.
This is shown to be one of the enduring themes of the story of cryptography, leading right through to the 1970s where credit for developing the RSA cryptographic technique went to Diffie, Hellman and Merkle in 1975, despite being developed in 1969 at GCHQ, a fact that was only publicly admitted in 1997.
A section of the book that will be of particular appeal to computer scientists is where cryptography is shown to have given birth to computing. Born from the desire for a method to perform simple operations on numbers very quickly. Computers now dominate the field of cryptography and crypt-analysis, and their ability to perform a task millions of times with no errors has transformed the science. It is also noted how much we rely on cryptography daily, in areas such as e-commerce, where our details are encrypted without us even being aware of the fact.
The final chapter is an examination into the politics of cryptography, and a balanced look into the ethical implications of governmental snooping on communication, versus the possible benefits of reducing serious crime and terrorism. This is clearly a very pertinent point in todays political climate, and a balanced look at this issue is a very valuable thing. With the heightened risk of terrorist attack, or at least the public perception of such, the government are intercepting more and more communications for analysis, and encryption by criminals is becoming more and more popular.
The book covers the topic well; from governmental use, to anecdotes about lovers exchanging secret messages. Throughout this the reader is constantly being eased into the mathematical technique behind, in a manner that does not require a background in mathematics. There is an appendix to the book, in the form of 5 cipher challenges for the reader to attempt to crack. The knowledge gleaned from the book should be preparation enough to do so, and will fascinate the curious nature of the books audience.
Matthew Sparkes' is a journalist and programmer, his homepage is Non-Tech City."
You can purchase The Science of Secrecy from bn.com. Slashdot welcomes readers' book reviews -- to see your own review here, read the book review guidelines, then visit the submission page.
Other good books (Score:5, Informative)
Between Silk and Cyanide : A Codemaker's War, 1941-1945; Leo Marks
Enigma; Robert Harris
Doh, broken link here (Score:1)
Don't forget Cryptonomicon! (Score:4, Informative)
the real life Cryptonomicon (Score:5, Interesting)
Best book (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Best book (Score:2)
looks a bit like GWB, in a typical speech, to me.
Eh? (Score:2)
I feel sorry for your wife/girlfriend/boyfriend whatever if you have one.
Re:Best book (Score:1)
Re:Other good books (Score:1)
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0385495323/104-20 93210-6205527?v=glance&n=283155 [amazon.com]
"The Code Book" is excellent. (Score:2)
The list of further reading in the back, as I recall, is quite good also. I think that's where I first was pointed towards Bruce Schneier's Applied Cryptography, which is a great (if quite de
Re:Other good books (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Rules of Secracy (Score:2)
Re:Rules of Secracy (Score:2)
From memory (Score:5, Informative)
Does this book cover the Voynich Manuscript [wikipedia.org]? I'd be interested in seing if someone cracks that (or determines that it says nothing - still, it's interesting that it follows Ziph's law!).
Re:From memory (Score:3, Informative)
Zipf's law
The probability of occurrence of words or other items starts high and tapers off. Thus, a few occur very often while many others occur rarely.
Note: In the English language words like "and," "the," "to," and "of" occur often while words like "undeniable" are rare. This law applies to words in human or computer languages, operating system calls, colors in images, etc., and is the basis of many (if not, all!) compression approaches.
More precisely it is the observation
Re:From memory (Score:2)
Full disclosure: Elonka [elonka.com] is a friend of mine, and my co-moderator on
Re:From memory (Score:2, Informative)
Elonka :)
Re:From memory - Bad Memory! (Score:2)
That's not true for the German Enigma machine. The rotor was stepped once for each key press. Perhaps other rotor machines like the Japanese Purple cipher machine had a variable stepping mechanism.
Re:From memory - Bad Memory! (Score:2)
Not entirely correct... (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Not entirely correct... (Score:1, Informative)
The easiest way to deal with a cypher (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:The easiest way to deal with a cypher (Score:1)
Re:The easiest way to deal with a cypher (Score:1)
Is this review in error? (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Is this review in error? (Score:2)
Re:Is this review in error? (Score:1, Informative)
RSA asymmetric key cryptography and Diffie-Hellman Key exchange are two fundamentally different procedures, although at the end of the day they allow two parties to come to the agreement of a shared secret.
One reason why no-one hears much about Diffie-Hellman is that Diffie-Hellman keys/parameters are usually generated per secure comms session and not persistently stored. Although the computational hit to do this is nothing like generating RSA pub/priv keys it
Simon Singh has *LOTS* of great books (Score:5, Informative)
More than often brute force prevails... (Score:1)
Oh really. I wonder how many times a cipher was broken by first breaking the senders bones and then asking questions?
Re:More than often brute force prevails... (Score:2)
Rubber Hose Method (Score:2)
Computationally inexpensive, indeed.
Same material as Singh's previous "The Code Book" (Score:5, Informative)
The first thing I wanted to know when I looked at this review was, "How is this different from his previous, The Code Book ??
The answer is, not much at all, by the author's own admission:
In other words, if you've already read The Code Book (and you should! It's great!), you won't need to rush out and buy Science of Secrecy -- but if you want to get a gift for someone, a hardback copy of The Science of Secrecy (along with the DVDs of the TV series if available) might server better.
Re:Same material as Singh's previous "The Code Boo (Score:1)
This is an adaptation of an earlier title (Score:2)
From Singh's site [simonsingh.net]:
(quote)
The Science of Secrecy is my second book on cryptography. My first, called The Code Book, covers similar material to the Science of Secrecy. It is already available in paperback so it is somewhat cheaper. The advantages of The Science of Secrecy are that it is in hardback, better illustrated, and follows the structure of the TV series. If you have read The Code Book then
Not Available (Score:2, Insightful)
Purchase... well, EIGHT copies are available from the used section - no new copies, as it was originally published in January of 2000.
It sounds like an interesting read, but why post this if it isn't available in even double digit quantities?
I'm on to you... (Score:5, Funny)
Re:I'm on to you... (Score:1, Funny)
Wrong title (Score:4, Informative)
I'm a little surprised we're seeing a review of it only now; it's 5 or 6 years old. I have it, and greatly enjoyed it.
Re:Wrong title (Score:3, Informative)
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1841154350/qid=1
Amazon has both books.
Re:Wrong title (Score:4, Informative)
The Code Book: The Evolution of Secrecy from Mary, Queen of Scots to Quantum Cryptography
It's a 1999, 1st edition hardback. I emailed the publisher to find out why the subtitle had changed, and when. The ISBN is identical to the current edition. I need to check out a current edition to see if there are any substantive differences in the text.
Jim
The facts (Score:5, Informative)
Re:troll (Score:1)
A discovery channel show shared the same title (Score:2)
Re:A discovery channel show shared the same title (Score:2)
Conspiracy buffs, start you engines!
Made by Diverse for UK Channel 4... (Score:4, Informative)
Diverse lists it on their website, but there's no link to a DVD or any other signs that it exists. Too bad, because at 5, 30-minute episodes it would make a good two disc set (throw one 30-minute reel of extras on there and you'd have two 90 minute DVDs). I'd bet they'd make far more revenue from that then they would from having it sit around in their archives.
Their web page for the series is:
http://www.diverse.tv/programme.aspx?id=8 [diverse.tv]
In a completely unrelated note, they are apparently looking for families [diverse.tv] who want to be on a show they're filming for TLC here in the US. Very