The Code Book: The Secret History of Codes and Code-breaking

Product Information

If you've got the hang of coding messages by shifting the alphabet forward, then you might have realised that it is actually pretty simple to crack this type of code. This new book fills that gap, covering a large number of things never envisioned by Gaines; including hill climbing, the best known contemporary algorithm for breaking ciphers. Like Jason Fagone's book I read last year, it is the perfect complement to David Kahn's classic, The Corebreakers. It's a really, really good book and I have to highly recommend this one to anyone who likes both math and history. Its comprehensive survey of manual codes and techniques for cryptanalyzing them is thoroughly illustrated with real historical examples, from the Voynich manuscript to the Zodiac Killer’s encrypted messages.

Code Breaking Books - Goodreads

Gender roles had not become a barrier because there was hardly anyone in code breaking at all,” says Fagone. I always really want to read these books about codes, especially WW2 codes, but somehow I just get stuck. Codebreaking isn't just for super-geniuses with supercomputers, it's something we were all born to do. Allied cryptanalysts also made extensive use of IBM punched-card proto-computers, and built computing devices that attacked codes other than Enigma; though the book does not mention it, one of them used DRAM before it was a word! With over a hundred cloak and dagger examples, ranging from the Emperor Ferdinand II, the Holy Roman Emperor from the House of Habsburg in the 1640s, to the Zodiac Killer in northern California in the 1960s, this is what you need.

Non ho un particolare interesse per la Matematica e non ho studi scientifici alle spalle, ma da sempre sono affascinata da tutto ciò che riguarda la Seconda Guerra Mondiale. It is amateur friendly, up to date, and offers pencil-and paper methods, easy to grasp even by non-professional codebreakers without special mathematical skills, to detect and break cryptograms. But if they encounter something new, they must first and foremost figure out the encryption method, or risk wasting time.

Codes and Code Breaking - NRICH The Secret World of Codes and Code Breaking - NRICH

He needed a way of communicating his battle plans and tactics to everyone on his side without the enemy finding out. Breaking these cryptograms fascinates people all over the world, and often gives people insight into the lives of their ancestors. Another aspect of the book that interested me was how military and political leaders chose to use (or not use) the intelligence that was gathered. Two well-known code-breaking experts have joined forces and produced a book that takes a very practical look into how one solves historical ciphers, with a lot of useful theory along the way. Born in 1892 in Indiana, the young Elizebeth Smith was a keen linguist from an early age, and graduated from college in 1915 as an English Literature major.

This is a fantastic guide to cryptography, Dunin and Schmeh do a masterful job of explaining most known methods complete with historical commentary. There is some background WWI information, as well as a little bit of touching on what happened to these organizations after WWII (the NSA! Reading this book has clarified my illusions that older cryptograms were simple, and deeply increased my respect for pencil and paper methods. This is a wonderfully readable and impressive book, encompassing all the major Allied efforts to decode German and Japanese codes.