Any cryptographers in the house?

I'm looking to learn more about the history of cryptography. (Or maybe just "encryption"). Making and breaking codes to conceal messages.

Have done a bit of reading, but would like to learn more. What books, classes, videos, journal articles, etc do you recommend? I read and enjoyed cryptonomicon about 10 years ago so I would like to learn things like that (I'm aware it is a fiction book). What are the methods and the people and the stories behind the methods?

The computer based stuff interests me as well, but I am primarily interested in pre-computer cryptography.

I can handle heavy math if necessary but I'd rather start with the history rather than the theory - the stories rather than the math - if that makes sense.

The book Enigma immediately springs to mind, the definitive account of breaking the German's code in WWII.

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I'm pretty sure Crytonomicon actually has some suggestions at the end of the book. Try The Code Breakers by David Kahn or The Code Book by Singh. This is the sort of book that public libraries tend to stock :)

aircooled said:

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At first I was like "What the broken hyperlink?" and then I was like "Bwahahahaaa!!". Good one!

The SoloLearn app has an intro to Cryptography course.

The coding tutorials have been pretty good so far, so it might be a good place to start.

It's actually next on my list of courses from them.

My favorite kind is steganography.  Its a cool idea, and a cool word.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steganography

mikeatrpi said:

My favorite kind is steganography.  Its a cool idea, and a cool word.

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steganography

Now I’m wondering what that wiki page is truly about...

I would recommend "The Code Book: The Science of Secrecy from Ancient Egypt to Quantum Cryptography" by Simon Singh https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B004IK8PLE/

Elizabeth Friedman and her husband

Annie and I listened to the audio version of this earlier this year. Excellent history of 20th century cryptography in the U.S. However, because of the detail the author gets into, in retrospect we both agreed that the actual book would have been better.

More on her

Came in here to talk about the latest in modern cryptography on computers, but it sounds more like you need an historian

Ottawa said:

I would recommend "The Code Book: The Science of Secrecy from Ancient Egypt to Quantum Cryptography" by Simon Singh https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B004IK8PLE/

Yes! What a cool book.

Good suggestions everyone!

I'll try to hit the local library today

Robbie said:

Good suggestions everyone!

I'll try to hit the local library today

Most libraries can order books not in stock from inter library loans......

californiamilleghia said:

Robbie said:

Good suggestions everyone!

I'll try to hit the local library today

Most libraries can order books not in stock from inter library loans......

Yeah, I put a few on order. I did drag these home as starters though.

Are you wanting to learn ABOUT codes or are you wanting to learn to DO codes?  I did a very general paper on codes for my BA, I'm certain nothing more sophisticated than what you'd find on Wikipedia these days.  I have read some books on spying/codes in WWII which were interesting, but they were more about history surrounding codes than actual cryptography.

Codes have a very deep history. I think it's important to research that history. And I've given reference to a very relevant source previously.

Gary said:

Codes have a very deep history. I think it's important to research that history. 

They are incredibly interesting if nothing else!!

I'm only about 1/4 of the way through one of the books I got, but so far I'm noticing two significant interesting facts. 

1. Women were extremely prominent in the code-breaking industry, because they were the best at it. And the code-breaking industry was probably the highest impact job in WWII. Awesome.

2. Humans apparently like to believe that "incredibly difficult to solve = safe". The enigma machine was like this to the Germans, and all of current cryptology is based on math problems that are difficult* but not impossible (difficult* means with current brute force computing would take millions of years to solve). Seems like a pattern. 

The fun thing about this history is it is the history of insanely smart people. Apparently one hiring requirement of Bletchley Park (the British code breaking force) was that you could completely solve 5 london newspaper daily crossword puzzles by yourself in one hour. That's averaging 12 minutes or better. Holy. Crap. 

Did you know that Enigma machines were on the commercial market in the 1920s aimed at banks and other high-profile industries to keep data secure? Yes, they were a commercial flop - until they were picked up by the German navy and swiftly removed from private sale. 

During wartime, women were also more readily available than men. 

The ability to factor large primes quickly - a potential result of quantum computing, iirc - is going to be a problem for current crypto schemes for sure. 

Keith Tanner said:

During wartime, women were also more readily available than men. 

Though this is true, and is a factor for labor intensive work, the book I'm currently reading argues that this was not a significant driver for women in codebreaking.

#1 - code breaking was not a small part of the war effort. The Brits considered it their highest priority, and some famous estimates say the codebreaking teams shortened the war by 2-3 years. You can rest assured they were pulling the best folks for the job, not just 'the women who happened to be standing around with nothing to do'.

#2 - whether the stereotypes are correct or not, women were percieved to have better attention to detail (make one incorrect letter and the entire cipher could be thrown off), language skills, and women were not nearly as prone to blab about their job when not at work, a key to keeping the whole thing seceret.

I feel like after reading a cryptology book there would be this feeling like I just missed the point and everybody would be laughing at me.   

mblommel said:

Ottawa said:

I would recommend "The Code Book: The Science of Secrecy from Ancient Egypt to Quantum Cryptography" by Simon Singh https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B004IK8PLE/

Yes! What a cool book.

So, I rented this book from a nearby library. Started reading today, and this page fell open:

So, did the last person to rent this book just leave their slip by accident? Or was this left on purpose...

Note the incredibly odd date on this slip vs the date I started this thread.

Edit: E36 M3! And the date I found it vs the due date.

Had a "friend" in HS that was big into this stuff. Invented his own language and alphabet, was fluent in 3 languages by the time he was 16. Supposedly the CIA had contacted him and basically told him to go to one of 3 universities for a specific major, but that could have just been his posturing. Interesting dude. I'd look him up, but deleted him from everything because he started to sound more and more tin-foil hat and neonaziish on facebook.