This obsession with secrecy has had dramatic effects on the outcome of wars, monarchies and individual lives. On the other hand, restricting the use of cryptography would allow the police to spy on criminals, but it would also allow the police and everybody else to spy on the average citizen.The Secret History of Codes and Code BreakingĮver since humans began writing, they have been communicating in code. Cryptographic freedom would allow everyone, including criminals, to be confident that their e-mails are secure. 'The fundamental question is whether or not governments should legislate against cryptography. It is about the right to privacy, freedom of speech, freedom of political association, freedom of the press, freedom from unreasonable search and seizure, freedom to be left alone.” But in the Information Age, cryptography is about political power, and in particular, about the power relationship between a government and its people. Historically, it always had a special role in military and diplomatic communications. 'Cryptography used to be an obscure science, of little relevance to everyday life. I also learned about the differences between cryptography, steganography, ciphers, encryption and decryption.The cat-and-mouse nature of this book with respect to cryptanalysts and cryptographers reminded me of how human history and most of what we engage with in life is “just another one of those”.If like like history, digital privacy, logical deductions, puzzles, maths, data interpretation.While it sparked a lot of my intellectual curiosity, I got bored quite quickly and there was friction finishing the book. I was hoping for there to be many more parallels drawn to where we are today. I didn’t like this book because it was very verbose and too historical. It explains each technological breakthrough starting with the history (including the individuals), and then unveiling the practical and mathematical, and includes lots of charts, tables, maths, and puzzles.

I liked this book because it’s incredibly comprehensive, well-researched, and multi-faceted.

A cat and mouse history of cryptanalysts vs.

Multi-facted, covering maths, history, personalities,.

A story of ciphers and encryption through history.

I know a bit about cryptography via Bitcoin research and some basic stuff related to Imitation Games, Morse Code, Alan Turing. I saw it highly rated and reviewed on Goodreads and aped blindly. It’s about the history of code and cryptography.

2 min read Rating: 6/10 Read More on Goodreads 🤔 Pre Read Exercise: What Do I Know About This Topic/Book?.

The code book singh