Sharing the story of the Enigma Machine in World War II, he shows the evolution from encryption by hand to encryption by machine. Additionally, he discusses the story behind the Beale Papers to introduce how codemakers use keys to encrypt their messages. He discusses how secret writing evolved into steganography and cryptography, how cryptography developed into transposition and substitution, and lastly, how substitution evolved into codes and ciphers. He uses Mary Queen of Scots to show the evolution of secret writing and the development of cryptography. To illustrate his first point, Singh shares stories about well-known ciphers such as those involving Mary Queen of Scots, the Beale Papers, and the Enigma.

We, as student and instructor in a course entitled Networks for Cyber Operations, used this book as one of our texts in the Spring semester of 2016. He enthusiastically presents stories surrounding ciphers such as who created them, who sought to break them, and if and how the codebreakers were successful. Throughout the eight chapters, he discusses the elements of complex ciphers and simplifies the mathematical details for a general audience. The first is to show the evolution of codes and ciphers, and the second is to demonstrate their relevance in today’s society. Singh specifically lists two purposes for this book. The Code Book is about the mathematics and science of codes and ciphers throughout history. ' Any book on cryptography written for a more-or-less lay audience must inevitably face comparisons to The Code Book by Simon Singh, the king of distilling complex subjects to a few hundred pages of understandable writing.The Code Book: The Science of Secrecy from Ancient Egypt to Quantum Cryptography 'A fascinating meander through the centuries replete with tales of intrigue, political chicanery, military secrecy and academic rivalry.' In addition to stories of intrigue and warfare, Simon Singh also investigates other codes, the unravelling of genes and the rediscovery of ancient languages and most tantalisingly, the Beale ciphers, an unbroken code that could hold the key to a $20 million treasure. The betrayal of Mary Queen of Scots and the cracking of the enigma code that helped the Allies in World War II are major episodes in a continuing history of cryptography. From the best-selling author of Fermat’s Last Theorem, The Code Book is a history of man’s urge to uncover the secrets of codes, from Egyptian puzzles to modern day computer encryptions.Īs in Fermat’s Last Theorem, Simon Singh brings life to an astonishing story of puzzles, codes, languages and riddles that reveals man’s continual pursuit to disguise and uncover, and to work out the secret languages of others.Ĭodes have influenced events throughout history, both in the stories of those who make them and those who break them.

The code book singh