Simon Singh, The Code Book: The Secret History of Codes and Code-breaking

I am very interested in code breaking, this book was fantastic esprecially how he devised the frequency table...to find the most common letter in the english alphabet. I felt that it was excellent, i advise every body to read this book.......

he should have give a brief history about al-kindi because he was the first person to decode,

this book is one in a million

well done SIMON SINGH

I studied Computer Security and this book was technically correct and explained well. Combined with the history of what was motivating the improvements in cryptoanalysis I found this book hard to put down. A must read - I enjoyed this book immensely and was sorry to finish it.

Simon Singh, The Code Book: The Secret History of Codes and Code-breaking - People love secrets. Ever since the first word was written, humans have sent coded messages to each other. In The Code Book, Simon Singh, author of the bestselling Fermat's Enigma, offers a peek into the world of cryptography and codes, from ancient texts through computer encryption. Singh's compelling history is woven through with stories of how codes and ciphers have played a vital role in warfare, politics, and royal intrigue. The major theme of The Code Book is what Singh calls "the ongoing evolutionary battle between codemakers and codebreakers," never more clear than in the chapters devoted to World War II. Cryptography came of age during that conflict, as secret communications became critical to both sides' success.

"Confronted with the prospect of defeat, the Allied cryptanalysts had worked night and day to penetrate German ciphers. It would appear that fear was the main driving force, and that adversity is one of the foundations of successful codebreaking."

In the information age, the fear that drives cryptographic improvements is both capitalistic and libertarian -- corporations need encryption to ensure that their secrets don't fall into the hands of competitors and regulators, and ordinary people need encryption to keep their everyday communications private in a free society. Similarly, the battles for greater decryption power come from said competitors and governments wary of insurrection.

The Code Book is an excellent primer for those wishing to understand how the human need for privacy has manifested itself through cryptography. Singh's accessible style and clear explanations of complex algorithms cut through the arcane mathematical details without oversimplifying.