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Anyone who is even slightly interested in crypto history should try to track down a copy of this
book. This book is Yardley's memoirs on forming the WWI Black Chamber - an organization who's "sensitive
ears catch the faintest whisperings in the foreign capitals of the world". Yardley writes about
secret inks, forging of embassy seals, the training of "friendly" female spies, and on more than
one occasion, executions as a result of his work. An excellent read.
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Between Silk and Cyanide: A Codemaker's War
Marks, Leo. 1998. 613 pages.
Categories: Biographical, History |
The most concise summary of this autobiography is one man's wartime fight with internal politics to get a one time pad system adopted. A less boring sounding summary could be that people live, die, and are tortured for lack of good cryptographic mechanisms. Since Mr. Marks was intentionally left in the dark constantly, the book turns into sort of a mystery novel at times. A good editor would probably have removed 50 pages from this book, as there are way too many "that day, another indecipherable arrived" sections. This might tempt some readers to skim the book, but if then do, they'll most certainly miss out on the exploding poo and L-pills.
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This is the long awaited sequel (of sorts) to Bamford's first book on the NSA, "The
Puzzle Palace" (1983). The book is divided into two parts, first covering the history
of SIGINT (mostly in times of war) and the second covering the agency today. The
first part gives good treatment of the Cuban Missile Crisis and touches on pre-80's
sources and methods. The second part is sometimes boring, as he exhaustively details
the NSA's dealings with reverse discrimination, layoffs, chronology of directors, and
other mundane administrative trivia.
The book sites many FOIA-obtained documents which the author uses to make some very
serious accusations. One of which is "Operation Northwoods", in which the author
claims that during the 60's, the Joint Chiefs of Staff were united in proposing various
scenarios in which innocent Americans would be killed by the US government within US
borders in order to lay the blame on Castro and rally the American public to back an
invasion into Cuba.
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Chinese Black Chamber, The: An Adventure in Espionage
Yardley, Herbert O. 1983 (Currently out of print). 225 pages.
Categories: Biographical, History |
Given the trouble Yardley nearly got into after writing "The American Black Chamber", this book
wasn't published for over 40 years after its completion. Yardley recounts his experiences
helping the Chinese resist Japan from 1938 to 1940. The book is mostly the difficulties he
encountered while trying to set up a Black Chamber in China.
The culture begins to influence him, and he visits opium houses, bargains for family
daughters, and even shoots the hand of his chauffeur who's eavesdropping outside his
window. A one point he recommends that a traitor he discovered is assassinated and creates
a silencer (which the Chinese had not yet seen) for that task. Not nearly as much crypto
explanation as in the "The American Black Chamber", but in this one he still does his fair
share of ferreting out spies and the like.
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Code Breakers, The: The Comprehensive History of Secret Communication from Ancient Times to the Internet
Kahn, David. 1996, Revised edition. 1181 pages.
Categories: History, Reference, Top Picks |
The Code Breakers is the Bible of historical cryptography (1900 BC to 1965 AD), weighing in at 1181
pages. While the revised edition briefly covers more recent encryption (two key systems, etc) it's
sort of an unnecessary tag on to this great work. I recommend this book for people already
interested in cryptography. No technical background is required.
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Crypto: How the Code Rebels Beat the Government - Saving Privacy in the Digital Age
Levy, Steven. 2001. 356 pages.
Categories: History |
One of the most complete historical accounts of modern cryptography. The book should appeal
to those interested in the personalities behind public key cryptography, but not the
details as to how it works. It should especially appeal to those who wish to read Levy's
accounts concerning the interactions of the NSA with folks like Hellman, Feistel, Bidzos,
Denning, Diffie, Zimmerman, and so on. Packed to the brim with amusing anecdotal accounts
you've come to expect from Levy's style of journalism.
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Cryptology: Machines, History and Methods
Deavours, Cipher A. (Editor) / Kahn, David (Editor) / Kruh, Louis (Editor) / Mellen, Greg (Editor) / Winkel, Brian J. (Editor). 1989 (Currently out of print). 520 pages.
Categories: Biographical, Cryptanalysis, History |
The 2nd volume of selected papers from the CRYPTOLOGIA journal (see also the "Cryptology: Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow" and "Selections from Cryptologia: History, People, and Technology").
All three volumes are unsurpassed in their highly illustrated analysis of historically significant cryptography machines. (This is, however, is probably the weakest of the three volumes.) The many topics in this volume include:
* Biographical information on cryptographically important individuals including Marian Rejenski, Georges-Jean Painvain, and Duke August.
* Articles on automated analysis of substitution ciphers.
* Pictorial discussion on the proper use of an Enigma.
* The St. Paul's Churchyard tombstone ciphers.
* Ongoing analysis of the Beale Ciphers (probably a hoax).
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Cryptology: Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow
Deavours, Cipher A. (Editor) / Kahn, David (Editor) / Kruh, Louis (Editor) / Mellen, Greg (Editor) / Winkel, Brian J. (Editor). 1987 (Currently out of print). 519 pages.
Categories: Biographical, Cryptanalysis, History |
The 1st volume of selected papers from the CRYPTOLOGIA journal (see also "Cryptology: Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow" and "Selections from Cryptologia: History, People, and Technology").
All three volumes are unsurpassed in their highly illustrated analysis of historically significant cryptography machines. The many topics in this volume include:
* Biographical information on cryptographically important individuals including William Friedman and Franke Rowlett.
* Excellent commentary on Yardley’s "The American Black Chamber" book.
* A couple of articles on unicity, with unicity points computed for many different ciphers.
* A few big names submitting articles, such as Rivest, and another by Robert Morris, a giant in cryptography (though you’re probably more familiar with his son Robert Morris Jr. and his internet worm of '88).
* A couple of articles on the automated analysis of cryptograms.
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Love in Code: Or, How to Keep Your Secrets
McCormick, Donald. 1980 (Currently out of print). 216 pages.
Categories: General Interest, History |
This is a roughly chronological history of lovers who resorted to cryptography to cover up
their illicit or socially unacceptable affairs. The book gives many accounts of encrypted
love letters, many of which were anonymously published in local newspapers as an innocuous
means of dissemination. Other anecdotes tell of encrypted diary entries, soldiers wishing
to circumvent the censors when sending home love letters, and the all-too-frequent
encrypted communications by couples engaged in adultery.
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Norse Medieval Cryptography in Runic Carvings
Monge, Alf / Landsverk, O. G. 1967 (Currently out of print). 224 pages.
Categories: History |
Rune by rune, the author guides you through his proof of Norse explorations in America. By
breaking the cryptography of the Kensington runestone, apparently one could discover the
secret dates the Christian Norsemen were trying to conceal in their encrypted carvings. My
copy is missing pages 131 to 162 and has the pages 99 to 130 twice. That's fine with me,
because it's kinda boring.
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Pleasures of Counting, The
Korner, T. W. 1997. 534 pages.
Categories: History, Mathematics |
This survey of math and math history is a gem. I wish I had come across it in my mid-teens, as it makes some of the lower hanging mathematics fun and relevant. The book’s aim is to help the mathematically-minded pre-university or freshman year student broaden his/her mathematical interests, without using calculus (except for apologetically in one little section). There are interesting problems to work in every topic area. The book is reviewed here because it offers 72 pages on the mathematics and history of WWII cryptography, and 20 pages on complexity theory and information theory, all with interesting exercises. Keep this in mind for high school graduation gifts.
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The Puzzle Palace is a fascinating inside look at the National Security Agency.
Covers such topics as the NSA measuring their computer floor space in acres,
their somewhat "invasive" hiring practices, and the history of the DES. Due
to when it was written, it only covers the history of the NSA up to 1982. However,
don't let that stop you from picking up this national bestseller.
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Secret Code Breaker (vol I, II, III): A Cryptanalyst's Handbook
Reynard, Robert / null, LUWUU APQFT ZEOWS (Programming). 1999. 115 pages.
Categories: History, Kids, Pen and Paper |
Secret Code Breaker Vol I to III are a great set of books specifically aimed at a younger audience.
The books explore
traditional (pre computer) cryptography, and both come with software (DOS, but works with Windows) that lets you try out
the concepts you learn in each chapter. Packed with historical context, the reader is
challenged to decrypt messages that were actually sent during times of war. After reading
the books, I recommend them for readers ages 13 to adult. Adults who enjoy newspaper cryptograms will
really enjoy these texts.
(Books written from 1996 to 1999, and 115 pages on average.)
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Secret Diplomacy: Espionage and Cryptography 1500-1815
Thompson, James Westfall / Padover, Saul K. 1965 (Currently out of print). 290 pages.
Categories: History |
Originally published in 1937. The most interesting cryptographic references are in the appendix of this book.
A better choice for historical cryptography would be The Codebreakers, by David Kahn.
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Selections from Cryptologia: History, People, and Technology
Deavours, Cipher A. (Editor) / Kahn, David (Editor) / Kruh, Louis (Editor) / Mellen, Greg (Editor) / Winkel, Brian J. (Editor). 1998. 552 pages.
Categories: Biographical, Cryptanalysis, History |
The 3rd volume of selected papers from the CRYPTOLOGIA journal (see also the "Cryptology: Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow" and "Cryptology: Machines, History and Methods").
All three volumes are unsurpassed in their highly illustrated analysis of historically significant cryptography machines. The many topics in this volume include:
* Biographical information on cryptographically important individuals including Agnes Meyer Driscoll (broke the Japanese "Blue Book" code) and Prescott Currier.
* 14th century Arab contributions to letter frequency cryptanalysis.
* 19th century cryptography used by the Vatican.
* The cryptography of the author Lewis Carroll (the pen name for Charles Dodgson).
* Lots of photos of classic Russian crypto devises.
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