by Simon Singh
Kahn’s history of the Battle of the Atlantic and the importance of cryptography. In particular, he dramatically describes the “pinches” from U-boats which helped the codebreakers at Bletchley Park.
Hinsley, F.H., and Stripp, Alan (eds), The Codebreakers: The Inside Story of Bletchley Park (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1992).
A collection of illuminating essays by the men and women who were part of one of the greatest cryptanalytic achievements in history.
Smith, Michael, Station X (London: Channel 4 Books, 1999).
The book based on the British Channel 4 TV series of the same name, containing anecdotes from those who worked at Bletchley Park, otherwise known as Station X.
Harris, Robert, Enigma (London: Arrow, 1996).
A novel revolving around the codebreakers at Bletchley Park.
Chapter 5
Paul, Doris A., The Navajo Code Talkers (Pittsburgh, PA: Dorrance, 1973).
A book devoted to ensuring that the contribution of the Navajo code talkers is not forgotten.
McClain, S., The Navajo Weapon (Boulder, CO: Books Beyond Borders, 1994).
A gripping account that covers the entire story, written by a woman who has spent much time talking to the men who developed and used the Navajo code.
Pope, Maurice, The Story of Decipherment (London: Thames & Hudson, 1975).
A description of various decipherments, from Hittite hieroglyphs to the Ugaritic alphabet, aimed at the layperson.
Davies, W.V., Reading the Past: Egyptian Hieroglyphs (London: British Museum Press, 1997).
Part of an excellent series of introductory texts published by the British Museum. Other authors in the series have written books on cuneiform, Etruscan, Greek inscriptions, Linear B, Maya glyphs, and runes.
Chadwick, John, The Decipherment of Linear B (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1987).
A brilliant description of the decipherment.
Chapter 6
Data Encryption Standard, FIPS Pub. 46–1 (Washington, D.C.: National Bureau of Standards, 1987).
The official DES document.
Diffie, Whitfield, and Hellman, Martin, “New directions in cryptography,” IEEE Transactions on Information Theory, vol. IT-22 (November 1976), pp. 644–54.
The classic paper that revealed Diffie and Hellman’s discovery of key exchange, opening the door to public key cryptography.
Gardner, Martin, “A new kind of cipher that would take millions of years to break,” Scientific American, vol. 237 (August 1977), pp. 120–24.
The article which introduced RSA to the world.
Hellman, M.E., “The mathematics of public key cryptography,” Scientific American, vol. 241 (August 1979), pp. 130–39.
An excellent overview of the various forms of public key cryptography. Schneier, Bruce, Applied Cryptography (New York: John Wiley & Sons, 1996)
An excellent survey of modern cryptography. A definitive, comprehensive, and authoritative introduction to the subject.
Chapter 7
Zimmermann, Philip R., The Official PGP User’s Guide (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1996).
A friendly overview of PGP, written by the man who developed it.
Garfinkel, Simson, PGP: Pretty Good Privacy (Sebastopol, CA: O’Reilly & Associates, 1995).
An excellent introduction to PGP and the issues surrounding modern cryptography.
Bamford, James, The Puzzle Palace (London: Penguin, 1983).
Inside the National Security Agency, America’s most secret intelligence organization.
Koops, Bert-Jaap, The Crypto Controversy (Boston, MA: Kluwer, 1998).
An excellent survey of the impact of cryptography on privacy, civil liberty, law enforcement and commerce.
Diffie, Whitfield, and Landau, Susan, Privacy on the Line (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1998).
The politics of wiretapping and encryption.
Chapter 8
Deutsch, David, The Fabric of Reality (London: Allen Lane, 1997).
Deutsch devotes one chapter to quantum computers, in his attempt to combine quantum physics with the theories of knowledge, computation and evolution.
Bennett, C. H., Brassard, C., and Ekert, A., “Quantum Cryptography,” Scientific American, vol. 269 (October 1992), pp. 26–33.
A clear explanation of the evolution of quantum cryptography.
Deutsch, D., and Ekert, A., “Quantum computation,” Physics World, vol. 11, no. 3 (March 1998), pp. 33–56.
One of four articles in a special issue of Physics World. The other three articles discuss quantum information and quantum cryptography, and are written by leading figures in the subject. The articles are aimed at physics graduates and give an excellent overview of the current state of research.
Internet Sites
The Mystery of the Beale Treasure
http://www.roanokeva.com/stories/beale.html
A collection of sites relating to the Beale ciphers. The Beale Cypher and Treasure Association is currently in transition, but it hopes to be active soon.
Bletchley Park
http://www.cranfield.ac.uk/ccc/bpark/
The official Web site, which includes opening times and directions.
The Alan Turing Homepage
http://www.turing.org.uk/turing/
Enigma emulators
http://www.attlabs.att.co.uk/andyc/enigma/enigma_j.html
http://www.izzy.net/~ian/enigma/applet/index.html
Two excellent emulators that show how the Enigma machine works. The former allows you to alter the machine settings, but it is not possible to track the electrical path through the scramblers. The latter has only one setting, but has a second window that shows the scramblers moving and the subsequent effect on the electrical path.
Phil Zimmermann and PGP
http://www.nai.com/products/security/phil/phil.asp
Electronic Frontier Foundation
http://www.eff.org/
An organization devoted to protecting rights and promoting freedom on the Internet.
Centre for Quantum Computation
http://www.qubit.org/
Information Security Group, Royal Holloway College
http://isg.rhbnc.ac.uk/
National Cryptologic Museum
http://www.nsa.gov:8080/museum/
American Cryptogram Association (ACA)
http://www.und.nodak.edu/org/crypto/crypto/
An association which specializes in setting and solving cipher puzzles. Cryptologia
http://www.dean.usma.edu/math/
resource/pubs/cryptolo/index.htm
A quarterly journal devoted to all aspects of cryptology.
Cryptography Frequently Asked Questions
http://www.cis.ohio-state.edu/hypertext/faq/usenet/cryptography-faq/top.html
RSA Laboratories’ Frequently Asked Questions About Today’s Cryptography
http://www.rsa.com/rsalabs/faq/html/questions.html
Yahoo! Security and Encryption Page
http://www.yahoo.co.uk/Computers_and_Internet/
Security_and_Encryption/
Crypto Links
http://www.ftech.net/~monark/crypto/web.htm
Picture credits
Line illustrations by Miles Smith-Morris.
Hieroglyphs reproduced by kind permission of British Museum Press.
Linear B characters reproduced by kind permission of Cambridge University Press.
1.1 Scottish National Portrait Gallery, Edinburgh;
1.2 Ibrahim A. Al-Kadi and Mohammed Mrayati, King Saud University, Riyadh;
1.3 Public Record Office, London;
1.4 Scottish National Portrait Gallery, Edinburgh;
2.1 Cliché Bibliothèque Nationale de France, Paris, France;
2.2 Science and Society Picture Library, London;
2.3 The Beale Treasure-History of a Mystery by Peter Viemeister;
3.1 David Kahn Collection, New York;
3.1 Bundesarchiv, Koblenz;
3.2 National Archive, Washington DC;
3.4 Luis Kruh Collection, New York;
3.5 David Kahn Collection;
3.6 Science and Society Picture Library, London;
4.1 David Kahn Collection, New York;
4.2 Imperial War Museum, London;
4.3 Private collection of Barbara Eachus;
4.4 Godfrey Argent Agency, London;
4.5 Imperial War Museum, London;
4.6 Telegraph Group Limited, London;
5.1 National Archive, Washington DC;
5.2 British Museum Press, London;
5.3 Louvre, Paris © Photo RMN;
5.4 Department of Classics, University of Cincinnati;
5.5 Private collection of Eva Brann;
5.6 Source unknown;
5.7 Private collection of Joan Chadwick;
6.1 Sun Microsystems;
6.2 Stanford, University of California;
6.3 RSA Data Security, Inc.;
6.4 Private collection of Brenda Ellis;
6.5 Private collection of Clifford Cocks;
6.6 Private collection of Malcolm Williamson;
7.1 Network Associates, Inc.;
8.1 Penguin Books, London;
8.2 Thomas J. Watson Laboratories, IBM.
