books tagged “cryptography”

English

Alan Turing: The Enigma
by Andrew Hodges

ISBN 0671528092 (0-671-52809-2)
Softcover, Simon & Schuster

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Book summary:
Alan Turing died in 1954, but the themes of his life epitomize the turn of the millennium. A pure mathematician from a tradition that prided itself on its impracticality, Turing laid the foundations for modern computer science, writes Andrew Hodges:

Alan had proved that there was no "miraculous machine" that could solve all mathematical problems, but in the process he had discovered something almost equally miraculous, the idea of a universal machine that could take over the work of any machine.
During World War II, Turing was the intellectual star of Bletchley Park, the secret British cryptography unit. His work cracking the German's Enigma machine code was, in many ways, the first triumph of computer science. And Turing died because his identity as a homosexual was incompatible with cold-war ideas of security, implemented with machines and remorseless logic: "It was his own invention, and it killed the goose that laid the golden eggs."
Andrew Hodges's remarkable insight weaves Turing's mathematical and computer work with his personal life to produce one of the best biographies of our time, and the basis of the Derek Jacobi movie Breaking the Code. Hodges has the mathematical knowledge to explain the intellectual significance of Turing's work, while never losing sight of the human and social picture:

In this sense his life belied his work, for it could not be contained by the discrete state machine. At every stage his life raised questions about the connection (or lack of it) between the mind and the body, thought and action, intelligence and operations, science and society, the individual and history.
And Hodges admits what all biographers know, but few admit, about their subjects: "his inner code remains unbroken." Alan Turing is still an enigma. --Mary Ellen Curtin [via]
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Applied Cryptography: Protocols, Algorithms, and Source Code in C
by Bruce Schneier

ISBN 0471117099 (0-471-11709-9)
Softcover, John Wiley & Sons Inc

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Book summary:
After a brief account of the history of cryptography, the latest data on encryption protocols and techniques are explained. Describes present-day applications ranging from electronic cash to anonymous messaging and current security concerns. The second section assumes fairly sophisticated knowledge of the C programming language and features numerous source code fragments. Practical implementations of the code are listed throughout the book's second half. [via]
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Battle of Wits: The Complete Story of Codebreaking in World War II
by Stephen Budiansky

ISBN 0743217349 (0-7432-1734-9)
Softcover, Free Pr

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On December 3, 1941, officers of the U.S. Army Signal Intelligence Unit decoded a message sent from Tokyo to the Japanese embassy in Washington, ordering embassy staff to destroy its code books and other sensitive material. This, the officers determined, meant that Japan was preparing to break off diplomatic relations with the United States and go to war. When, they could not say; to gain a precise date, they would have had to break the Japanese naval codes. Therein, writes Stephen Budiansky in Battle of Wits, lay the rub: "Since mid-1939, America had not read a single message in the main Japanese naval code on the same day it had been sent. For most of the period from June 1, 1939, to December 7, 1941, the [U.S.] Navy was working on naval messages that were months, or even over a year old."
For all their lack of preparedness and occasional inefficiencies, and for all the disdain with which some Allied ground commanders held the work of military intelligence, writes Budiansky, Allied cryptographers were of critical importance in determining the outcome of World War II. The decoding of Japanese and German encryption engines, for instance, helped the Allied navies gain victory in the battles of the Atlantic and Midway, while the translation of secret German railroad schedules allowed Winston Churchill to warn Josef Stalin that the German army was about to invade the Soviet Union--though Stalin refused to take the warning seriously. The codebreakers, in short, "averted disasters that would have been terrible setbacks to the Allied cause," and they almost certainly saved a considerable number of lives as they labored to crack such profound puzzles as Enigma and Purple.
Budiansky's narrative is strong on the science of cryptography--so much so that readers without a background in mathematics and logic may have trouble following the arcana of key squares, bigrams, and all the other trade secrets of cryptanalysis. Readers willing to brave matters technical, however, will find Budiansky's comprehensive account to be the best single book on the subject, and one well worth their attention. --Gregory McNamee [via]
More editions of Battle of Wits: The Complete Story of Codebreaking in World War II:
- Battle of Wits : The Complete Story of Codebreaking in World War II: ISBN 0684859327 (0-684-85932-7)
  Hardcover, Simon & Schuster
- Battle of Wits: The Complete Story of Codebreaking in World War II: ISBN 0743217349 (0-7432-1734-9)
  Softcover, Free Pr
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Between Silk and Cyanide: A Codemaker's War, 1941-1945
by Leo Marks

ISBN 068486780X (0-684-86780-X)
Softcover, Simon & Schuster

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Book summary:
At the age of 8, Leo Marks discovered the great game of code-making and -breaking in his father's London bookshop, thanks to a first edition of Poe's The Gold-Bug. At 23, as World War II was being played out in earnest, he hoped to use his strengths for the Allies. But Marks's urgent, witty memoir, Between Silk and Cyanide, begins with his failure to get into British Intelligence's cryptographic department. As everyone else on his course heads off to Bletchley Park ("the promised land"), he is sent to what his sergeant terms "some potty outfit in Baker Street, an open house for misfits." In fact, the Special Operations Executive's mandate was, in Churchill's stirring phrase, to "Set Europe Ablaze," and Marks's was to monitor code security so that agents could could report back as safely as possible. When he arrived, the common wisdom was that it was easiest for men and women in the field to memorize and use well-known poems.
Unfortunately, since the Germans had equal access to the classics--"Reference books," Marks quips, "are jackboots when used by cryptographers"--Marks thought agents should write their own poems (or use his) instead, several of which are cheerily obscene. After all, no son or daughter of the Fatherland could ever know the rest of a verse that began "Is de Gaulle's prick / Twelve inches thick," and continued on in a similar, shall we say, vein. But Marks soon felt that original doggerel was just as dangerous, since even slight misspellings could render messages indecipherable and risk agents' lives. His first solution? WOKs (worked-out keys) printed on silk. An operative would use one key, send the message, and immediately tear off the strip. Marks had a hard time proving that swaths of silk would save his people from swallowing their "optional extra," a cyanide pill. His efforts were dead serious, but often landed him in comic terrain.
In one of the book's great set pieces, Marks visits Colonel Wills--surely the model for Ian Fleming's Q--in order to sort out the best ways to print his code keys. Before solving this minor problem (invisible ink!), Wills showed Marks several new projects--one of which involves an exotic array of dung, courtesy of the London Zoo. This gifted gadgetmeister planned to model life-sized reproductions of these droppings and pack them with explosives, personalized for all parts of Europe, Africa, and Asia. "Once trodden on or driven over (hopefully by the enemy) the whole lot would go off with a series of explosions even more violent than the ones which had produced it," Marks explains.
Despite such larky sentences and sections, the author never loses sight of the importance of his vocation, and Between Silk and Cyanide is as elegiac as it is engaging. Marks knows when to cut the laugh track, particularly as his book becomes a despairing record of agents blown--lost to torture, prison, the camps, and execution. Readers will never forget the valor of Violette Szabo, Noor Inayat Kahn, and the White Rabbit himself, Flight Lieutenant Yeo-Thomas. Poem-cracking, as Marks again and again makes clear, was far more than a parlor game. --Kerry Fried [via]
More editions of Between Silk and Cyanide: A Codemaker's War, 1941-1945:
- Between Silk and Cyanide: A Codemaker's War, 1941-1945: ISBN 0684864223 (0-684-86422-3)
  Hardcover, Simon & Schuster
- Between Silk and Cyanide: A Codemaker's War, 1941-1945: ISBN 068486780X (0-684-86780-X)
  Softcover, Simon & Schuster
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Body of Secrets: Anatomy of the Ultra-Secret National Security Agency
by James Bamford

ISBN 0385499086 (0-385-49908-6)
Softcover, Random House Inc

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Everybody knows about the CIA--the cloak-and-dagger branch of the U.S. government. Many fewer are familiar with the National Security Agency, even though it has been more important to American espionage in recent years than its better-known counterpart. The NSA is responsible for much of the intelligence gathering done via technology such as satellites and the Internet. Its home office in Maryland "contains what is probably the largest body of secrets ever created."
Little was known about the agency's confidential culture until veteran journalist James Bamford blew the lid off in 1982 with his bestseller The Puzzle Palace. Still, much remained in the shadows. In Body of Secrets, Bamford throws much more light on his subject--and he reveals loads of shocking information. The story of the U-2 crisis in 1960 is well known, including President Eisenhower's decision to tell a fib to the public in order to protect a national-security secret. Bamford takes the story a disturbing step forward, showing how Eisenhower "went so far as to order his Cabinet officers to hide his involvement in the scandal even while under oath. At least one Cabinet member directly lied to the committee, a fact known to Eisenhower." Even more worrisome is another revelation, from the Kennedy years: "The Joint Chiefs of Staff drew up and approved plans for what may be the most corrupt plan ever created by the U.S. government. In the name of anticommunism, they proposed launching a secret and bloody war of terrorism against their own country in order to trick the American public into supporting an ill-conceived war they intended to launch against Cuba."
Body of Secrets is an incredible piece of journalism, and it paints a deeply troubling portrait of an agency about which the public knows next to nothing. Fans of The Sword and the Shield will want to read it, as will anybody who is intrigued by conspiracies and real-life spy stories. --John J. Miller [via]
More editions of Body of Secrets: Anatomy of the Ultra-Secret National Security Agency:
- Body of Secrets: Anatomy of the Ultra-Secret National Security Agency: ISBN 0385499086 (0-385-49908-6)
  Softcover, Random House Inc
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Body of Secrets : Anatomy of the Ultra-Secret National Security Agency, from the Cold War Through the Dawn of a New Century
by James Bamford

ISBN 0385499078 (0-385-49907-8)
Hardcover, Doubleday Publishing

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Book summary:
Everybody knows about the CIA--the cloak-and-dagger branch of the U.S. government. Many fewer are familiar with the National Security Agency, even though it has been more important to American espionage in recent years than its better-known counterpart. The NSA is responsible for much of the intelligence gathering done via technology such as satellites and the Internet. Its home office in Maryland "contains what is probably the largest body of secrets ever created."
Little was known about the agency's confidential culture until veteran journalist James Bamford blew the lid off in 1982 with his bestseller The Puzzle Palace. Still, much remained in the shadows. In Body of Secrets, Bamford throws much more light on his subject--and he reveals loads of shocking information. The story of the U-2 crisis in 1960 is well known, including President Eisenhower's decision to tell a fib to the public in order to protect a national-security secret. Bamford takes the story a disturbing step forward, showing how Eisenhower "went so far as to order his Cabinet officers to hide his involvement in the scandal even while under oath. At least one Cabinet member directly lied to the committee, a fact known to Eisenhower." Even more worrisome is another revelation, from the Kennedy years: "The Joint Chiefs of Staff drew up and approved plans for what may be the most corrupt plan ever created by the U.S. government. In the name of anticommunism, they proposed launching a secret and bloody war of terrorism against their own country in order to trick the American public into supporting an ill-conceived war they intended to launch against Cuba."
Body of Secrets is an incredible piece of journalism, and it paints a deeply troubling portrait of an agency about which the public knows next to nothing. Fans of The Sword and the Shield will want to read it, as will anybody who is intrigued by conspiracies and real-life spy stories. --John J. Miller [via]
More editions of Body of Secrets : Anatomy of the Ultra-Secret National Security Agency, from the Cold War Through the Dawn of a New Century:
- Body of Secrets : Anatomy of the Ultra-Secret National Security Agency, from the Cold War Through the Dawn of a New Century: ISBN 0385499078 (0-385-49907-8)
  Hardcover, Doubleday Publishing
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The Code Book for Young People
by Simon Singh

ISBN 0385730624 (0-385-73062-4)
Softcover, Random House Children's Books

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Book summary:
Calling upon accounts of political intrigue and tales of life and death, author Simon Singh tells history's most fascinating story of deception and cunning: the science of cryptography--the encoding and decoding of private information. Based on The Code Book: The Science of Secrecy from Ancient Egypt to Quantum Cryptography, this version has been abridged and slightly simplified for a younger audience. None of the appeal for curious problem-solving minds has been lost, though. From Julius Caesar to the 10th-century Arabs; from Mary Queen of Scots to "Alice and Bob"; from the Germans' Enigma machine to the Navajo code talkers in World War II, Singh traces the use of code to protect--and betray--secrecy. Moving right into the present, he describes how the Information Age has provided a whole new set of challenges for cryptographers. How private are your e-mail communications? How secure is sending your credit card information over the Internet? And how much secrecy will the government tolerate? Complex but highly accessible, The Code Book will make readers see the past--and the future--in a whole new light. (Ages 14 and older) [via]
More editions of The Code Book for Young People:
- The Code Book for Young People: ISBN 0385730624 (0-385-73062-4)
  Softcover, Random House Children's Books
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The Code Book : The Evolution of Secrecy from Mary, Queen of Scots to Quantum Cryptography
by Simon Singh

ISBN 0385495315 (0-385-49531-5)
Hardcover, Doubleday Publishing

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People love secrets, and ever since the first word was written, humans have written 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 either side's 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. Can't get enough crypto? Try solving the Cipher Challenge in the back of the book--$15,000 goes to the first person to crack the code! --Therese Littleton [via]
More editions of The Code Book : The Evolution of Secrecy from Mary, Queen of Scots to Quantum Cryptography:
- The Code Book : The Evolution of Secrecy from Mary, Queen of Scots to Quantum Cryptography: ISBN 0385495315 (0-385-49531-5)
  Hardcover, Doubleday Publishing
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The Code Book: The Science of Secrecy from Ancient Egypt to Quantum Cryptography
by Simon Singh

ISBN 0385495323 (0-385-49532-3)
Softcover, Random House Inc

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Book summary:
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. --Therese Littleton [via]
More editions of The Code Book: The Science of Secrecy from Ancient Egypt to Quantum Cryptography:
- The Code Book: The Science of Secrecy from Ancient Egypt to Quantum Cryptography: ISBN 0756754739 (0-7567-5473-9)
  Hardcover, Diane Pub Co
- The Code Book: The Science of Secrecy from Ancient Egypt to Quantum Cryptography: ISBN 0385495323 (0-385-49532-3)
  Softcover, Random House Inc
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Code Breaking: A History and Exploration
by Rudolph Kippenhahn

ISBN 1585670898 (1-58567-089-8)
Softcover, Overlook Press, The

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Book summary:
The achievements of cryptography--the art of writing and deciphering coded messages--have become a part of everyday life, especially in our age of electronic banking and the Internet. In this provocative work, Rudolf Kippenhahn offers readers both an exciting chronicle of cryptography and a lively exploration of the cryptographer's craft. Rich with vivid anecdotes from a history of coding and decoding, Code Breaking brings the often abstruse art of deciphering coded messages to the general reader and reveals the relevance of codes to our everyday high-tech society. A stylishly written, meticulously researched adventure, it will enthrall everyone who wants to know more about the ways in which communication can be obscured and, like magic, made clear again.

A Selection of Doubleday's Library of Science Book Club
A Choice Academic Book of the Year [via]
More editions of Code Breaking: A History and Exploration:
- Code Breaking: A History and Exploration: ISBN 0879519193 (0-87951-919-3)
  Hardcover, Penguin Group USA
- Code Breaking: A History and Exploration: ISBN 1585670898 (1-58567-089-8)
  Softcover, Overlook Press, The
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The Codebreakers: The Story of Secret Writing
by David Kahn

ISBN 0684831309 (0-684-83130-9)
Hardcover, Scribner

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"Few false ideas have more firmly gripped the minds of so many intelligent men than the one that, if they just tried, they could invent a cipher that no one could break," writes David Kahn in this massive (almost 1,200 pages) volume. Most of The Codebreakers focuses on the 20th century, especially World War II. But its reach is long. Kahn traces cryptology's origins to the advent of writing. It seems that as soon as people learned how to record their thoughts, they tried to figure out ways of keeping them hidden. Kahn covers everything from the theory of ciphering to the search for "messages" from outer space. He concludes with a few thoughts about encryption on the Internet. [via]
More editions of The Codebreakers: The Story of Secret Writing:
- The Codebreakers: The Story of Secret Writing: ISBN 0025604600 (0-02-560460-0)
  Hardcover, Macmillan Pub Co
- The Codebreakers: The Story of Secret Writing: ISBN 0684831309 (0-684-83130-9)
  Hardcover, Scribner
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Codebreakers
by Kahn

ISBN 0297767852 (0-297-76785-2)
Hardcover, Weidenfeld and Nicolson

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More editions of Codebreakers:
- Codebreakers: ISBN 0297767852 (0-297-76785-2)
  Hardcover, Weidenfeld and Nicolson
Codebreakers: The Inside Story of Bletchley Park
by Alan Stripp, F. H. Hinsley

ISBN 0192801325 (0-19-280132-5)
Softcover, Oxford Univ Pr

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fine 1st edition 1st printing paperback [via]
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Codes, Ciphers & Other Cryptic & Clandestine Communication: Making and Breaking Secret Messages from Hieroglyphs to the Internet
by Fred B. Wrixon

ISBN 1579124852 (1-57912-485-2)
Softcover, Black Dog & Leventhal Pub

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Book summary:
Spies, secret societies, religious cults as well as anyone who has used an ATM or the internet rely on the making and breaking of codes for security.
Like a spy novel combined with the technology of a Tom Clancy thriller, Codes, Ciphers and Other Clandestine Communication successfully interweaves technical explanations of each important coding method with their place in the shadowy world of secret communications.
Special chapters teach some easy and fun ciphers that readers can make and use at home.
Hundreds of illustrated examples take the reader step-by-step through the foundations of cipher making from Caesar's cipher to World War I's ADFGX and beyond. Detailed diagrams and line drawings of each coding machine will delight technology buffs and war-machine aficionados.
Packed with historical anecdotes about cryptography's most famous pioneers and practitioners, this book covers the development of codes through the ages from the druids, Marie Antoinette, Aaron Burr, Confederate spies in the Civil War to the Freemasons, German U-Boat Wolf Packs, the KGB, and much more. [via]

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Codes, Ciphers and Secret Writing

by Martin Gardner

ISBN 0486247619 (0-486-24761-9)
Softcover, Dover Pubns

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ISBN 9780060733353 (0-06-073335-7, 0060733357)

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The Confusion

by Neal Stephenson

ISBN 0060733357 (0-06-073335-7)
Softcover, Harpercollins

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Meanwhile, back in Europe ...

The exquisite and resourceful Eliza, Countess de la Zeur, master of markets, pawn and confidante of enemy kings, onetime Turkish harem virgin, is stripped of her immense personal fortune by France's most dashing privateer. Penniless and at risk from those who desire either her or her head (or both), she is caught up in a web of international intrigue, even as she desperately seeks the return of her most precious possession -- her child.

While ...

Newton and Leibniz continue to propound their grand theories as their infamous rivalry intensifies, stubborn alchemy does battle with the natural sciences, nobles are beheaded, dastardly plots are set in motion, coins are newly minted (or not) in enemy strongholds, father and sons reunite in faraway lands, priests rise from the dead ... and Daniel Waterhouse seeks passage to the Massachusetts colony in hopes of escaping the madness into which his world has descended.

[via]

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ISBN 9780060599348 (0-06-059934-0, 0060599340)

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The Confusion Ltd

by Neal Stephenson

ISBN 0060599340 (0-06-059934-0)
Hardcover, Harpercollins

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In the year 1689, a cabal of Barbary galley slaves -- including one Jack Shaftoe, a.k.a. King of the Vagabonds, a.k.a. Half-Cocked Jack, lately and miraculously cured of the pox -- devises a daring plan to win freedom and fortune. A great adventure ensues, rife with battles, chases, hairbreadth escapes, swashbuckling, bloodletting, and danger -- a perilous race for an enormous prize of silver ... nay, gold ... nay, legendary gold that will place the intrepid band at odds with the mighty and the mad, with alchemists, Jesuits, great navies, pirate queens, and vengeful despots across vast oceans and around the globe. Meanwhile, back in Europe ... The exquisite and resourceful Eliza, Countess de la Zeur, master of markets, pawn and confidante of enemy kings, onetime Turkish harem virgin, is stripped of her immense personal fortune by France's most dashing privateer. Penniless and at risk from those who desire either her or her head (or both), she is caught up in a web of international intrigue, even as she desperately seeks the return of her most precious possession -- her child. While ... Newton and Leibniz continue to propound their grand theories as their infamous rivalry intensifies, stubborn alchemy does battle with the natural sciences, nobles are beheaded, dastardly plots are set in motion, coins are newly minted (or not) in enemy strongholds, father and sons reunite in faraway lands, priests rise from the dead ... and Daniel Waterhouse seeks passage to the Massachusetts colony in hopes of escaping the madness into which his world has descended. [via]

More editions of The Confusion Ltd:

The Confusion Ltd: ISBN 0060599340 (0-06-059934-0)
Hardcover, Harpercollins

A Course in Number Theory and Cryptography

by Neal Koblitz

ISBN 0387942939 (0-387-94293-9)
Hardcover, Springer Verlag

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Cryptanalysis a Study of Ciphers and Their Solutions

by H. F. Gaines

ISBN 0486200973 (0-486-20097-3)
Softcover, Dover Pubns

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Cryptanalysis a Study of Ciphers and Their Solutions: ISBN 0486200973 (0-486-20097-3)
Softcover, Dover Pubns

Crypto: How the Code Rebels Beat the Government--Saving Privacy in the Digital Age

by Steven Levy

ISBN 0756777887 (0-7567-7788-7)
Softcover, Diane Pub Co

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If the National Security Agency (NSA) had wanted to make sure that strong encryption would reach the masses, it couldn't have done much better than to tell the cranky geniuses of the world not to do it. Author Steven Levy, deservedly famous for his enlightening Hackers, tells the story of the cypherpunks, their foes, and their allies in Crypto: How the Code Rebels Beat the Government. From the determined research of Whitfield Diffie and Marty Hellman, in the face of the NSA's decades-old security lock, to the commercial world's turn-of-the-century embrace of encrypted e-commerce, Levy finds drama and intellectual challenge everywhere he looks. Although he writes, "Behind every great cryptographer, it seems, there is a driving pathology," his respect for the mathematicians and programmers who spearheaded public key encryption as the solution to Information Age privacy invasion shines throughout. Even the governmental bad guys are presented more as hapless control fetishists who lack the prescience to see the inevitability of strong encryption as more than a conspiracy of evil.

Each cryptological advance that was made outside the confines of the NSA's Fort Meade complex was met with increasing legislative and judicial resistance. Levy's storytelling acumen tugs the reader along through mathematical and legal hassles that would stop most narratives in their tracks--his words make even the depressingly silly Clipper chip fiasco vibrant. Hardcore privacy nerds will value Crypto as a review of 30 years of wrangling; those readers with less familiarity with the subject will find it a terrific and well-documented launching pad for further research. From notables like Phil Zimmerman to obscure but important figures like James Ellis, Crypto dishes the dirt on folks who know how to keep a secret. --Rob Lightner [via]

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ISBN 9780140244328 (0-14-024432-8, 0140244328)

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Crypto : Secrecy and Privacy in the New Code War

by Steven Levy

ISBN 0140244328 (0-14-024432-8)
Softcover, Penguin Group (USA) Incorporated

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Author Steven Levy, deservedly famous for his enlightening Hackers, tells the story of the cypherpunks, their foes, and their allies in Crypto; if the National Security Agency (NSA) had wanted to make sure that strong encryption would reach the masses, it couldn't have done much better than to tell the cranky geniuses of the world not to do it.

From the determined research of Whitfield Diffie and Marty Hellman, in the face of the NSA's decades-old security lock, to the commercial world's turn-of-the-century embrace of encrypted e-commerce, Levy finds drama and intellectual challenge everywhere he looks. Although he writes, "Behind every great cryptographer, it seems, there is a driving pathology", his respect for the mathematicians and programmers who spearheaded public key encryption as the solution to Information Age privacy invasion shines throughout. Even the governmental bad guys are presented more as hapless control fetishists who lack the prescience to see the inevitability of strong encryption as more than a conspiracy of evil.

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Crypto : Secrecy and Privacy in the New Code War: ISBN 0140244328 (0-14-024432-8)
Softcover, Penguin Group (USA) Incorporated

Cryptography: A Very Short Introduction

by F. C. Piper, Sean Murphy

ISBN 0192803158 (0-19-280315-8)
Softcover, Oxford Univ Pr

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Cryptography: A Very Short Introduction: ISBN 0192803158 (0-19-280315-8)
Softcover, Oxford Univ Pr

ISBN 9780138690175 (0-13-869017-0, 0138690170)

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Cryptography and Network Security: Principles and Practice

by William Stallings

ISBN 0138690170 (0-13-869017-0)
Hardcover, Prentice Hall

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Book summary:

Comprehensive in approach, this introduction to network and internetwork security provides a tutorial survey of network security technology, discusses the standards that are being developed for security in an internetworking environment, and explores the practical issues involved in developing security applications. [via]

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Cryptography and Network Security: Principles and Practice: ISBN 0138690170 (0-13-869017-0)
Hardcover, Prentice Hall

ISBN 9780060512804 (0-06-051280-6, 0060512806)

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Cryptonomicon

by Neal Stephenson

ISBN 0060512806 (0-06-051280-6)
Softcover, Harpercollins

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Neal Stephenson enjoys cult status among science fiction fans and techie types thanks to Snow Crash, which so completely redefined conventional notions of the high-tech future that it became a self-fulfilling prophecy. But if his cyberpunk classic was big, Cryptonomicon is huge... gargantuan... massive, not just in size (a hefty 918 pages including appendices) but in scope and appeal. It's the hip, readable heir to Gravity's Rainbow and the Illuminatus trilogy. And it's only the first of a proposed series--for more information, read our interview with Stephenson.

Cryptonomicon zooms all over the world, careening conspiratorially back and forth between two time periods--World War II and the present. Our 1940s heroes are the brilliant mathematician Lawrence Waterhouse, cryptanalyst extraordinaire, and gung ho, morphine-addicted marine Bobby Shaftoe. They're part of Detachment 2702, an Allied group trying to break Axis communication codes while simultaneously preventing the enemy from figuring out that their codes have been broken. Their job boils down to layer upon layer of deception. Dr. Alan Turing is also a member of 2702, and he explains the unit's strange workings to Waterhouse. "When we want to sink a convoy, we send out an observation plane first.... Of course, to observe is not its real duty--we already know exactly where the convoy is. Its real duty is to be observed.... Then, when we come round and sink them, the Germans will not find it suspicious."

All of this secrecy resonates in the present-day story line, in which the grandchildren of the WWII heroes--inimitable programming geek Randy Waterhouse and the lovely and powerful Amy Shaftoe--team up to help create an offshore data haven in Southeast Asia and maybe uncover some gold once destined for Nazi coffers. To top off the paranoiac tone of the book, the mysterious Enoch Root, key member of Detachment 2702 and the Societas Eruditorum, pops up with an unbreakable encryption scheme left over from WWII to befuddle the 1990s protagonists with conspiratorial ties.

Cryptonomicon is vintage Stephenson from start to finish: short on plot, but long on detail so precise it's exhausting. Every page has a math problem, a quotable in-joke, an amazing idea, or a bit of sharp prose. Cryptonomicon is also packed with truly weird characters, funky tech, and crypto--all the crypto you'll ever need, in fact, not to mention all the computer jargon of the moment. A word to the wise: if you read this book in one sitting, you may die of information overload (and starvation). --Therese Littleton [via]

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ISBN 9781400079179 (1-4000-7917-9, 1400079179)

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The Da Vinci Code

by Dan Brown

ISBN 1400079179 (1-4000-7917-9)
Softcover, Bantam Books

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With The Da Vinci Code, Dan Brown masterfully concocts an intelligent and lucid thriller that marries the gusto of an international murder mystery with a collection of fascinating esoteria culled from 2,000 years of Western history.

A murder in the silent after-hour halls of the Louvre museum reveals a sinister plot to uncover a secret that has been protected by a clandestine society since the days of Christ. The victim is a high-ranking agent of this ancient society who, in the moments before his death, manages to leave gruesome clues at the scene that only his daughter, noted cryptographer Sophie Neveu, and Robert Langdon, a famed symbologist, can untangle. The duo become both suspects and detectives searching for not only Neveu's father's murderer but also the stunning secret of the ages he was charged to protect. Mere steps ahead of the authorities and the deadly competition, the mystery leads Neveu and Langdon on a breathless flight through France, England, and history itself.

Brown (Angels and Demons) has created a page-turning thriller that also provides an amazing interpretation of Western history. Brown's hero and heroine embark on a lofty and intriguing exploration of some of Western culture's greatest mysteries--from the nature of the Mona Lisa's smile to the secret of the Holy Grail. Though some will quibble with the veracity of Brown's conjectures, therein lies the fun. The Da Vinci Code is an enthralling read that provides rich food for thought. --Jeremy Pugh [via]

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Decrypted Secrets: Methods and Maxims of Cryptology

by Friedrich L. Bauer

ISBN 3540426744 (3-540-42674-4)
Hardcover, Springer-Verlag New York Inc

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Cryptology, for millennia a "secret science", is rapidly gaining in practical importance for the protection of communication channels, databases, and software. Beside its role in computerized information systems (public key systems), more and more applications inside computer systems and networks are appearing, which also extend to access rights and source file protection. The first part of this book treats secret codes and their uses - cryptography. The second part deals with the process of covertly decrypting a secret code - cryptanalysis - where in particular advice on assessing methods is given. The book presupposes only elementary mathematical knowledge. Spiced with a wealth of exciting, amusing, and sometimes personal stories from the history of cryptology, it will also interest general readers. [via]

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Decrypted Secrets: Methods And Maxims of Cryptology

by Bauer

ISBN 3540245022 (3-540-24502-2)
Hardcover, Springer Verlag

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Decrypted Secrets: Methods And Maxims of Cryptology: ISBN 3540245022 (3-540-24502-2)
Hardcover, Springer Verlag

ISBN 9780312335168 (0-312-33516-4, 0312335164)

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Digital Fortress

by Dan Brown

ISBN 0312335164 (0-312-33516-4)
Hardcover, St. Martin's Press

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In most thrillers, "hardware" consists of big guns, airplanes, military vehicles, and weapons that make things explode. Dan Brown has written a thriller for those of us who like our hardware with disc drives and who rate our heroes by big brainpower rather than big firepower. It's an Internet user's spy novel where the good guys and bad guys struggle over secrets somewhat more intellectual than just where the secret formula is hidden--they have to gain understanding of what the secret formula actually is.

In this case, the secret formula is a new means of encryption, capable of changing the balance of international power. Part of the fun is that the book takes the reader along into an understanding of encryption technologies. You'll find yourself better understanding the political battles over such real-life technologies as the Clipper Chip and PGP (Pretty Good Privacy) software even though the book looks at the issues through the eyes of fiction.

Although there's enough globehopping in this book for James Bond, the real battleground is cyberspace, because that's where the "bomb" (or rather, the new encryption algorithm) will explode. Yes, there are a few flaws in the plot if you look too closely, but the cleverness and the sheer fun of it all more than make up for them. There are enough twists and turns to keep you guessing and a lot of high, gee-whiz-level information about encryption, code breaking, and the role they play in international politics. Set aside the whole afternoon and evening for it and have finger food on hand for supper--you may want to read this one straight through. [via]

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Digital Fortress: ISBN 0312335164 (0-312-33516-4)
Hardcover, St. Martin's Press

ISBN 9780312263126 (0-312-26312-0, 0312263120)

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Digital Fortress: A Thriller

by Dan Brown

ISBN 0312263120 (0-312-26312-0)
Softcover, Griffin

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Enigma

by Robert Harris

ISBN 1568952759 (1-56895-275-9)
Hardcover, Wheeler Pub Inc

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literate and savvy . . . Brims with wartime intrigue."--the washington post book worldengland 1943. Much of the infamous nazi enigma code has been cracked. But shark, the impenetrable operational cipher used by nazi u-boats, has masked the germans' movements, allowing them to destroy a record number of allied vessels. Feeling that the blood of allied sailors is on their hands, a top-secret team of british cryptographers works feverishly around the clock to break shark. And when brilliant mathematician tom jericho succeeds, it is the stuff of legend. . . ."a tense and thoughtful thriller."--san francisco chronicleuntil the unthinkable happens: the germans have somehow learned that shark has been cracked. And they've changed the code. . . ."suspenseful and fascinating."--the orlando sentinelas an allied convoy crosses the u-boat infested north atlantic . . . As jericho's ex-lover claire disappears amid accusations that she is a nazi collaborator . . . As jericho strains his last resources to break shark again, he cannot escape the ultimate truth: there is a traitor among them. . . . "gripping . . . Captivating ."--new york daily news"elegantly researched . . . Readers will find themselves perfectly placed to experience one of britain's finest hours."--people"satisfying . . . Harris does a crackerjack job here, playing his characters' lives off historical events in surprising ways."--entertainment weekly"suspenseful . . . Fiendishly clever."--detroit free press [via]

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ISBN 9783211826270 (3-211-82627-0, 3211826270)

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Enigma

by Alan Turing

ISBN 3211826270 (3-211-82627-0)
Hardcover, Springer

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Alan Turing, Enigma ist die Biographie des legendären britischen Mathematikers, Logikers, Kryptoanalytikers und Computerkonstrukteurs Alan Mathison Turing (1912-1954). Turing war einer der bedeutendsten Mathematiker dieses Jahrhunderts und eine höchst exzentrische Persönlichkeit. Er gilt seit seiner 1937 erschienenen Arbeit "On Computable Numbers", in der er das Prinzip des abstrakten Universalrechners entwickelte, als der Erfinder des Computers. Er legte auch die Grundlagen für das heute "Künstliche Intelligenz" genannte Forschungsgebiet. Turings zentrale Frage "Kann eine Maschine denken?" war das Motiv seiner Arbeit und wird die Schlüsselfrage des Umgangs mit dem Computer werden. Die bis 1975 geheimgehaltene Tätigkeit Turings für den britischen Geheimdienst, die zur Entschlüsselung des deutschen Funkverkehrs führte, trug entscheidend zum Verlauf und Ausgang des Zweiten Weltkriegs bei. [via]

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Enigma: ISBN 3211826270 (3-211-82627-0)
Hardcover, Springer

ISBN 9780471490357 (0-471-49035-0, 0471490350)

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Enigma: The Battle for the Code

by Hugh Sebag-Montefiore

ISBN 0471490350 (0-471-49035-0)
Softcover, John Wiley & Sons Inc

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ACCLAIM FOR ENIGMA

CRACKING STUFF&VIVID AND HITHERTO UNKNOWN DETAILS. Sunday Times (London)

IN A CROWD OF BOOKS DEALING WITH THE ALLIED BREAKING OF THE WORLD WAR II CIPHER MACHINE ENIGMA, HUGH SEBAG-MONTEFIORE HAS SCORED A SCOOP. Washington Post

Winston Churchill called the cracking of the German Enigma Code the secret weapon that won the war. Now, for the first time, noted British journalist Hugh-Sebag-Montefiore reveals the complete story of the breaking of the code by the Alliesthe breaking that played a crucial role in the outcome of World War II.

This fascinating account relates the never-before-told, hair-raising stories of the heroic British and American sailors, spies, and secret agents who faced death in order to capture vital codebooks from sinking ships and snatch them from under the noses of Nazi officials. Sebag-Montefiore also relates new details about the genesis of the code, little-known facts about how the Poles first cracked the Luftwaffes version of the code (and then passed it along to the British), and the feverish activities at Bletchley Park, Based in part on documents recently unearthed from American and British archivesincluding previously confidential government filesand in part on unforgettable, firsthand accounts of surviving witnesses, Enigma unearths the stunning truth about the brilliant piece of decryption that changed history.

[via]

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ISBN 9780849385230 (0-8493-8523-7, 0849385237)

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Handbook of Applied Cryptography

by Scott A. Vanstone, Paul C. Van Oorschot, Alfred J. Menezes

ISBN 0849385237 (0-8493-8523-7)
Hardcover, CRC Pr I Llc

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Book summary:

Cryptography, in particular public-key cryptography, has emerged in the last 20 years as an important discipline that is not only the subject of an enormous amount of research, but provides the foundation for information security in many applications. Standards are emerging to meet the demands for cryptographic protection in most areas of data communications. Public-key cryptographic techniques are now in widespread use, especially in the financial services industry, in the public sector, and by individuals for their personal privacy, such as in electronic mail. This Handbook will serve as a valuable reference for the novice as well as for the expert who needs a wider scope of coverage within the area of cryptography. It is a necessary and timely guide for professionals who practice the art of cryptography.

The Handbook of Applied Cryptography provides a treatment that is multifunctional:

It serves as an introduction to the more practical aspects of both conventional and public-key cryptography

It is a valuable source of the latest techniques and algorithms for the serious practitioner

It provides an integrated treatment of the field, while still presenting each major topic as a self-contained unit

It provides a mathematical treatment to accompany practical discussions

It contains enough abstraction to be a valuable reference for theoreticians while containing enough detail to actually allow implementation of the algorithms discussed
Now in its third printing, this is the definitive cryptography reference that the novice as well as experienced developers, designers, researchers, engineers, computer scientists, and mathematicians alike will use.

[via]

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Handbook of Applied Cryptography: ISBN 0849385237 (0-8493-8523-7)
Hardcover, CRC Pr I Llc

ISBN 9781565123779 (1-56512-377-8, 1565123778)

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In Code: A Mathematical Journey

by Sarah Flannery, David Flannery

ISBN 1565123778 (1-56512-377-8)
Softcover, Algonquin Books

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Book summary:

In January 1999, Sarah Flannery, a sports-loving teenager from Blarney in County Cork, Ireland was awarded Ireland's Young Scientist of the Year for her extraordinary research and discoveries in Internet cryptography. The following day, her story began appearing in Irish papers and soon after was splashed across the front page of the London Times, complete with a photo of Sarah and a caption calling her "brilliant." Just 16, she was a mathematician with an international reputation.

In Code is a heartwarming story that will have readers cheering Sarah on. Originally published in England and co-written with her mathematician father, David Flannery, In Code is "a wonderfully moving story . . . about the thrill of the mathematical chase" (Nature) and "a paean to intellectual adventure" (Times Educational Supplement). A memoir in mathematics, it is all about how a girl next door, nurtured by her family, moved from the simple math puzzles that were the staple of dinnertime conversation to prime numbers, the Sieve of Eratosthenes, Fermat's Little Theorem, Googols-- and finally into her breathtaking algorithm. Parallel with each step is a modest girl's own self-discovery--her values, her burning curiosity, the joy of persistence, and, above all, her love for her family. [via]

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Java Cryptography

by Jonathan Knudsen

ISBN 1565924029 (1-56592-402-9)
Softcover, O'Reilly Media, Incorporated

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Java Cryptography: ISBN 1565924029 (1-56592-402-9)
Softcover, O'Reilly Media, Incorporated

ISBN 9780060934552 (0-06-093455-7, 0060934557)

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The Man Who Broke Napoleon's Code

by Mark Urban

ISBN 0060934557 (0-06-093455-7)
Softcover, HarperCollins Canada, Limited

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History books report -- and rightly so -- that it was the strategic and intelligence-gathering brilliance of the Duke of Wellington (who began his military career as Arthur Wellesley) that culminated in Britain's defeat of Napoleon Bonaparte at Waterloo in 1815. Nearly two hundred years later, many of General Wellesley's subordinates are still remembered for their crucial roles in these historic campaigns. But Lt. Col. George Scovell is not among them.

The Man Who Broke Napoleon's Codes is the story of a man of common birth -- bound, according to the severe social strictures of eighteenth-century England, for the life of a tradesman -- who would in time become his era's most brilliant code-breaker and an officer in Wellesley's army. In an age when officers were drawn almost exclusively from the ranks of the nobility, George Scovell -- an engraver's apprentice -- joined Wellesley in 1809. Scovell provides a fascinating lens through which to view a critical era in military history -- his treacherous rise through the ranks, despite the scorn of his social betters and his presence alongside Wellesley in each of the major European campaigns, from the Iberian Peninsula through Waterloo.

But George Scovell was more than just a participant in those events. Already recognized as a gifted linguist, Scovell would prove a remarkably nimble cryptographer. Encoded military communiqués between Napoleon and his generals, intercepted by the British, were brought to Scovell for his skilled deciphering. As Napoleon's encryption techniques became more sophisticated, Wellesley came to rely ever more on Scovell's genius for this critical intelligence.

In Scovell's lifetime, his role in Britain's greatest military victory was grudgingly acknowledged; but his accomplishments would eventually be credited to others -- including Wellington himself. Scovell's name -- and his contributions -- have been largely overlooked or ignored.

The Man Who Broke Napoleon's Codes tells the fascinating story of the early days of cryptology, re-creates the high drama of some of Europe's most remarkable military campaigns, and restores the mantle of hero to a man heretofore forgotten by history.

[via]

More editions of The Man Who Broke Napoleon's Code:

ISBN 9780471223573 (0-471-22357-3, 0471223573)

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Practical Cryptography

by Bruce Schneier, Niels Ferguson

ISBN 0471223573 (0-471-22357-3)
Softcover, John Wiley & Sons Inc

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Book summary:

Security is the number one concern for businesses worldwide. The gold standard for attaining security is cryptography because it provides the most reliable tools for storing or transmitting digital information. Written by Niels Ferguson, lead cryptographer for Counterpane, Bruce Schneier's security company, and Bruce Schneier himself, this is the much anticipated follow-up book to Schneier's seminal encyclopedic reference, Applied Cryptography, Second Edition (0-471-11709-9), which has sold more than 150,000 copies.
Niels Ferguson (Amsterdam, Netherlands) is a cryptographic engineer and consultant at Counterpane Internet Security. He has extensive experience in the creation and design of security algorithms, protocols, and multinational security infrastructures. Previously, Ferguson was a cryptographer for DigiCash and CWI. At CWI he developed the first generation of off-line payment protocols. He has published numerous scientific papers.
Bruce Schneier (Minneapolis, MN) is Founder and Chief Technical Officer at Counterpane Internet Security, a managed-security monitoring company. He is also the author of Secrets and Lies: Digital Security in a Networked World (0-471-25311-1). [via]

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ISBN 9780395312865 (0-395-31286-8, 0395312868)

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The Puzzle Palace

by James Bamford

ISBN 0395312868 (0-395-31286-8)
Hardcover, Houghton Mifflin

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In 1947, the governments of the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand signed a secret treaty in which they agreed to cooperate in matters of signals intelligence. In effect, the governments agreed to pool their geographic and technological assets in order to listen in on the electronic communications of China, the Soviet Union, and other Cold War bad guys--all in the interest of truth, justice, and the American Way, naturally. The thing is, the system apparently catches everything. Government security services, led by the U.S. National Security Agency, screen a large part (and perhaps all) of the voice and data traffic that flows over the global communications network. Fifty years later, the European Union is investigating possible violations of its citizens' privacy rights by the NSA, and the Electronic Privacy Information Center, a public advocacy group, has filed suit against the NSA, alleging that the organization has illegally spied on U.S. citizens.

Being a super-secret spy agency and all, it's tough to get a handle on what's really going on at the NSA. However, James Bamford has done great work in documenting the agency's origins and Cold War exploits in The Puzzle Palace. Beginning with the earliest days of cryptography (code-making and code-breaking are large parts of the NSA's mission), Bamford explains how the agency's predecessors helped win World War II by breaking the German Enigma machine and defeating the Japanese Purple cipher. He also documents signals intelligence technology, ranging from the usual collection of spy satellites to a great big antenna in the West Virginia woods that listened to radio signals as they bounced back from the surface of the moon.

Bamford backs his serious historical and technical material (this is a carefully researched work of nonfiction) with warnings about how easily the NSA's technology could work against the democracies of the world. Bamford quotes U.S. Senator Frank Church: "If this government ever became a tyranny ... the technological capacity that the intelligence community has given the government could enable it to impose total tyranny, and there would be no way to fight back, because the most careful effort to combine together in resistance to the government ... is within the reach of the government to know." This is scary stuff. --David Wall [via]

More editions of The Puzzle Palace:

The Puzzle Palace: ISBN 0395312868 (0-395-31286-8)
Hardcover, Houghton Mifflin

ISBN 9780140067484 (0-14-006748-5, 0140067485)

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The Puzzle Palace: A Report on America's Most Secret Agency

by James Bamford

ISBN 0140067485 (0-14-006748-5)
Softcover, Viking Pr

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The Puzzle Palace: A Report on America's Most Secret Agency: ISBN 0140067485 (0-14-006748-5)
Softcover, Viking Pr

ISBN 9780283989766 (0-283-98976-9, 0283989769)

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The Puzzle Palace: Americas National Security Agency and Its Special Relationship with Britains GCHQ

by James Bamford

ISBN 0283989769 (0-283-98976-9)
Hardcover, Sidgwick & Jackson

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The Puzzle Palace: Americas National Security Agency and Its Special Relationship with Britains GCHQ: ISBN 0283989769 (0-283-98976-9)
Hardcover, Sidgwick & Jackson

ISBN 9780060593087 (0-06-059308-3, 0060593083)

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Quicksilver

by Neal Stephenson

ISBN 0060593083 (0-06-059308-3)
Softcover, Harpercollins

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In Quicksilver, the first volume of the "Baroque Cycle," Neal Stephenson launches his most ambitious work to date. The novel, divided into three books, opens in 1713 with the ageless Enoch Root seeking Daniel Waterhouse on the campus of what passes for MIT in eighteenth-century Massachusetts. Daniel, Enoch's message conveys, is key to resolving an explosive scientific battle of preeminence between Isaac Newton and Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz over the development of calculus. As Daniel returns to London aboard the Minerva, readers are catapulted back half a century to recall his years at Cambridge with young Isaac. Daniel is a perfect historical witness. Privy to Robert Hooke's early drawings of microscope images and with associates among the English nobility, religious radicals, and the Royal Society, he also befriends Samuel Pepys, risks a cup of coffee, and enjoys a lecture on Belgian waffles and cleavage-all before the year 1700.

In the second book, Stephenson introduces Jack Shaftoe and Eliza. "Half-Cocked" Jack (also know as the "King of the Vagabonds") recovers the English Eliza from a Turkish harem. Fleeing the siege of Vienna, the two journey across Europe driven by Eliza's lust for fame, fortune, and nobility. Gradually, their circle intertwines with that of Daniel in the third book of the novel.

The book courses with Stephenson's scholarship but is rarely bogged down in its historical detail. Stephenson is especially impressive in his ability to represent dialogue over the evolving worldview of seventeenth-century scientists and enliven the most abstruse explanation of theory. Though replete with science, the novel is as much about the complex struggles for political ascendancy and the workings of financial markets. Further, the novel's literary ambitions match its physical size. Stephenson narrates through epistolary chapters, fragments of plays and poems, journal entries, maps, drawings, genealogic tables, and copious contemporary epigrams. But, caught in this richness, the prose is occasionally neglected and wants editing. Further, anticipating a cycle, the book does not provide a satisfying conclusion to its 900 pages. These are minor quibbles, though. Stephenson has matched ambition to execution, and his faithful, durable readers will be both entertained and richly rewarded with a practicum in Baroque science, cypher, culture, and politics. --Patrick O'Kelley [via]

More editions of Quicksilver:

ISBN 9783527500215 (3-527-50021-9, 3527500219)

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Secrets and Lies

ISBN 3527500219 (3-527-50021-9)
Hardcover, John Wiley & Sons Inc

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Wem kann man heute noch trauen? Bruce Schneier ist sicher einen Versuch wert -- seine Fähigkeit, den gesunden Menschenverstand anzusprechen, macht sein Buch Secrets & Lies. IT-Sicherheit in einer vernetzten Welt sowohl zu einer Offenbarung als auch zu einem praktischen Ratgeber. Schon seit Jahren arbeitet er im Bereich der Kryptographie und der elektronischen Sicherheit, und kam dabei zu der ernüchternden Erkenntnis, dass selbst die intelligenteste Programmierung und die sicherste Hardware keinen Schutz vor Angriffen darstellt, die auf menschliche Schwächen zielen.

Das Buch ist übersichtlich in drei Teile gegliedert: am Anfang ein Überblick über aktuelle Systeme und Bedrohungen, es folgen Techniken mit denen Daten geschützt und abgefangen werden können und zuletzt Strategien für die optimale Einrichtung von Sicherheitssystemen. Ohne sich blind auf vorbeugende Sicherheitsmaßnahmen zu verlassen, befürwortet Schneier Vorgehensweisen zur schnellen Aufdeckung und Reaktion auf einen Angriff, während man sich Amateure mit Firewalls und anderen Gateways vom Leib hält.

Neueinsteiger in die Welt von Schneier werden erstaunt sein, wie unterhaltsam er vor allem bei Themen sein kann, die allgemein als trocken und langweilig betrachtet werden. Egal ob er das Sicherheitsproblem von Rebellen und Todesstern in Star Wars analysiert oder sich über die großen Software- und E-Commerce-Unternehmen lustig macht, die ständig die Sicherheit ihrer Systeme für neue Modeanwendungen aufs Spiel setzen -- Schneier ist einer der wenigen Technik-Autoren, die den Leser unentwegt zum Lachen bringen.

Zwar ist er was die Zukunft der Systemsicherheit betrifft einigermaßen pessimistisch, aber er nimmt dem Leser die Angst, indem er unsere Welt der Elektronik mit der uns vertrauten, ebenso unsicheren Welt des Papiers vergleicht. Was macht da schon ein kleiner Kreditkartenbetrug aus. Trotz einer unglücklich platzierten (wenn auch kurzen) Schleichwerbung für seine Beratungsfirma im Nachwort des Buches, kann man sich darauf verlassen, dass Schneier in Secrets & Lies. IT-Sicherheit in einer vernetzten Welt" gute Arbeit leistet. --Rob Lightner [via]

More editions of Secrets and Lies:

Secrets and Lies: ISBN 3527500219 (3-527-50021-9)
Hardcover, John Wiley & Sons Inc

ISBN 9780471453802 (0-471-45380-3, 0471453803)

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Secrets and Lies: Digital Security in a Networked World

by Bruce Schneier

ISBN 0471453803 (0-471-45380-3)
Softcover, John Wiley & Sons Inc

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Book summary:

At the moment, it seems that hardly a day passes without fresh news of some glaring Internet security breach; online banks, of all things, seem to be particularly vulnerable at the moment. All of which will come as no great surprise to network security cum cryptography guru, Bruce Schnier. His latest book, Secrets and Lies, paints a very gloomy overview of the true state of network security. Schnier, founder of Counterpane Internet Security, has some harsh words to say about the state of network security, though, to be fair, his criticisms are directed far and wide; not one scapegoat, (not even Microsoft) is singled out for special attention. Depressingly, the words "fundamentally flawed" crop up time and time again in this absorbing book.

Secrets and Lies is a thorough backgrounder in all aspects of network security, an extremely wide remit that stretches from passwords to encryption, passing through authentication and attack trees along the way. The book is divided in to three broad categories, The Landscape, which covers attacks, adversaries and the need for security; Technologies, which discusses cryptography, authentication, network security, secure hardware and security tricks; and concludes with Strategies, which looks at vulnerabilities, risk assessment, security policies and the future of security. Mercifully there's a dim light at the end of this tunnel and Schnier ultimately remains upbeat about maintaining computer security and details a way forward in his conclusion.

Although working in a necessarily techie environment, Schnier's book is surprisingly jargon-free and easy to understand, even if you're not au fait with the inner workings of TCP/IP--it's common-sense, practical style makes a potentially dense and arcane subject accessible by just about anybody. It's also bang up to date, which makes for a pleasant change. Secrets and Lies is never less than thought-provoking and should be essential reading for every network administrator in the land. Be afraid, be very afraid! --Roger Gann [via]

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Seizing the Enigma: The Race to Break the German U-Boats Codes, 1939-1943

by David Kahn

ISBN 0395427398 (0-395-42739-8)
Hardcover, Houghton Mifflin

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More editions of Seizing the Enigma: The Race to Break the German U-Boats Codes, 1939-1943:

Seizing the Enigma: The Race to Break the German U-Boats Codes, 1939-1943: ISBN 0395427398 (0-395-42739-8)
Hardcover, Houghton Mifflin

ISBN 9780060750862 (0-06-075086-3, 0060750863)

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The System Of The World

by Neal Stephenson

ISBN 0060750863 (0-06-075086-3)
Softcover, Harpercollins

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Book summary:

'Tis done.

The world is a most confused and unsteady place -- especially London, center of finance, innovation, and conspiracy -- in the year 1714, when Daniel Waterhouse makes his less-than-triumphant return to England's shores. Aging Puritan and Natural Philosopher, confidant of the high and mighty and contemporary of the most brilliant minds of the age, he has braved the merciless sea and an assault by the infamous pirate Blackbeard to help mend the rift between two adversarial geniuses at a princess's behest. But while much has changed outwardly, the duplicity and danger that once drove Daniel to the American Colonies is still coin of the British realm.

No sooner has Daniel set foot on his homeland when he is embroiled in a dark conflict that has been raging in the shadows for decades. It is a secret war between the brilliant, enigmatic Master of the Mint and closet alchemist Isaac Newton and his archnemesis, the insidious counterfeiter Jack the Coiner, a.k.a. Jack Shaftoe, King of the Vagabonds. Hostilities are suddenly moving to a new and more volatile level, as Half-Cocked Jack plots a daring assault on the Tower itself, aiming for nothing less than the total corruption of Britain's newborn monetary system.

Unbeknownst to all, it is love that set the Coiner on his traitorous course; the desperate need to protect the woman of his heart -- the remarkable Eliza, Duchess of Arcachon-Qwghlm -- from those who would destroy her should he fail. Meanwhile, Daniel Waterhouse and his Clubb of unlikely cronies comb city and country for clues to the identity of the blackguard who is attempting to blow up Natural Philosophers with Infernal Devices -- as political factions jockey for position while awaiting the impending death of the ailing queen; as the "holy grail" of alchemy, the key to life eternal, tantalizes and continues to elude Isaac Newton, yet is closer than he ever imagined; as the greatest technological innovation in history slowly takes shape in Waterhouse's manufactory.

Everything that was will be changed forever ... The System of the World is the concluding volume in Neal Stephenson's Baroque Cycle, begun with Quicksilver and continued in The Confusion. [via]

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Spanish

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El Codigo Da Vinci / The Da Vinci Code
by Dan Brown, Juanjo Estrella

ISBN 8495618605 (84-95618-60-5)
Softcover, Ediciones Urano

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Book summary:
Nº 1 en USA

¿ Qué misterio se oculta tras la sonrisa de Mona Lisa? Durante siglos, la Iglesia ha conseguido mantener oculta la verdad& hasta ahora.

Antes de morir asesinado, Jacques Saunière, el último Gran Maestre de una sociedad secreta que se remonta a la fundación de los Templarios, transmite a su nieta Sofía una misteriosa clave. Saunière y sus predecesores, entre los que se encontraban hombres como Isaac Newton o Leonardo Da Vinci, han conservado durante siglos un conocimiento que puede cambiar completamente la historia de la humanidad. Ahora Sofía, con la ayuda del experto en simbología Robert Langdon, comienza la búsqueda de ese secreto, en una trepidante carrera que les lleva de una clave a otra, descifrando mensajes ocultos en los más famosos cuadros del genial pintor y en las paredes de antiguas catedrales. Un rompecabezas que deberán resolver pronto, ya que no están solos en el juego: una poderosa e influyente organización católica está dispuesta a emplear todos los medios para evitar que el secreto salga a la luz.

Un apasionante juego de claves escondidas, sorprendentes revelaciones, acertijos ingeniosos, verdades, mentiras, realidades históricas, mitos, símbolos, ritos, misterios y suposiciones en una trama llena de giros inesperados narrada con un ritmo imparable que conduce al lector hasta el secreto más celosamente guardado del inicio de nuestra era.

" Intriga y amenaza se mezclan en una de las mejores novelas de suspense que he leído jamás. Un sorprendente relato donde los enigmas se suceden a los secretos y éstos a las adivinanzas."

Clive Cussler.

" Un inteligente thriller lleno de enigmas y códigos que, sin duda, puede recomendarse con rotundo entusiasmo."

The New York Times
[via]
More editions of El Codigo Da Vinci / The Da Vinci Code:
- El Codigo Da Vinci / The Da Vinci Code: ISBN 8495618605 (84-95618-60-5)
  Softcover, Ediciones Urano
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El Codigo Da Vinci / The Da Vinci Code: El Illustrado / Illustraded
by Dan Brown, Juanjo Estrella

ISBN 8495618818 (84-95618-81-8)
Hardcover, Ediciones Urano

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Book summary:
¿Qué misterio se oculta tras la sonrisa de la celebre Mona Lisa? Durante siglos, la Iglesia ha conseguido mantener oculta la verdad& hasta ahora.
Uno de los libros con mas tiempo en el tope de la lista de los Best Sellers del New York Times!.... El Código Da Vinci, ahora en un audiolibro narrado en español del bestseller internacional de Dan Brown, producido exclusivamente por FONOLIBRO, el cual no podrá dejar de escuchar hasta que llegue al inesperado final.
Mientras se encontraba en un viaje de negocios en Paris, Robert Langdon, experto en simbologia de la universidad de Harvard, recibe una llamada urgente a media noche. Jacques Saunière, el último Gran Maestre de una sociedad secreta que se remonta a la fundación de los Templarios, ha sido asesinado en el museo del Louvre. Saunière antes de morir transmite a su nieta Sofía una misteriosa clave. Saunière y sus predecesores, entre los que se encontraban hombres como Isaac Newton o Leonardo Da Vinci, han conservado durante siglos un conocimiento que puede cambiar completamente la historia de la humanidad. Ahora Sofía, con la ayuda Robert Langdon, comienza la búsqueda de ese secreto, en una trepidante carrera que les lleva de una clave a otra, descifrando mensajes ocultos en los más famosos cuadros del genial pintor y en las paredes de antiguas catedrales. Un rompecabezas que deberán resolver pronto, ya que no están solos en el juego: una poderosa e influyente organización católica está dispuesta a emplear todos los medios para evitar que el secreto salga a la luz.
FonoLibro, lider en audiolibros en espanol, les trae una afamada historia sobre un apasionante juego de claves escondidas, sorprendentes revelaciones, acertijos ingeniosos, verdades, mentiras, realidades históricas, mitos, símbolos, ritos, misterios y suposiciones en una trama llena de giros inesperados narrada con un ritmo imparable que conduce al oyente hasta el secreto más celosamente guardado del inicio de nuestra era.
VERSION RESUMIDA: 7 CDs (APROX 8 HRS) [via]
More editions of El Codigo Da Vinci / The Da Vinci Code: El Illustrado / Illustraded:
- El Codigo Da Vinci / The Da Vinci Code: El Illustrado / Illustraded: ISBN 8495618818 (84-95618-81-8)
  Hardcover, Ediciones Urano
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La Fortaleza Digital / Digital Fortress
by Dan Brown, Eduardo G. Murillo

ISBN 8489367019 (84-89367-01-9)
Softcover, Ediciones Urano

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Book summary:
Susan Fletchr, la criptografa estrella de la ultrasecreta Agencia de Seguridad Nacional (NSA) o puede dar credito a sus oidos cuando su jefe, el subdirector de la Agencia, le informade que han interceptado un codigo que ni siquiera la mayor supercomputadora conocida puede descifrar... [via]
More editions of La Fortaleza Digital / Digital Fortress:
- La Fortaleza Digital / Digital Fortress: ISBN 8489367019 (84-89367-01-9)
  Softcover, Ediciones Urano

French

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The Da Vinci Code
by Dan Brown

ISBN 2266144340 (2-266-14434-0)
Softcover, Presses Pocket

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Book summary:
POCKET Thriller (P) n° 12265 (2005) - Dan BROWN Da Vinci Code [via]
More editions of The Da Vinci Code:
- The Da Vinci Code: ISBN 2266144340 (2-266-14434-0)
  Softcover, Presses Pocket

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