Product Description
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.
From the Inside Flap
Codes Ciphers & Other Cryptic & Clandestine Communication chronicles the world of secret communication from hieroglyphics to the Internet. The making and breaking of codes through history has won or lost wars, exposed political intrigue, disguised secret religions and secured financial transactions. It is a fascinating world of technological advances, cloak and dagger maneuvers and war espionage. Whether browsing through or reading cover to cover, you'll learn the amazing achievements of cryptology from the Rosicrucian's and Mason's secret transmissions to the Ultra operation which broke the German code and helped win World War II to computer codes that protect ATM's and the Internet today. Progressing methodically through the development of each coding method, concise, and engaging profiles describe the structural basis of each system and the thrilling stories that surround it. Biographies identify the significant code developers and breakers. Illustrations of letter and number patterns recreate the code makers' procedures, and sketches of coding machines show the actual devises used in the field. Every type of coded communication is covered from transpositions, substitutions and polygraphic ciphers to signals, stenography and ancient symbols. In special chapters, code and cipher breaking hints and puzzles explain how to make your own secret messages and how to break other people's. Anyone can become an amateur cryptologist!
