Codes, Ciphers, Secrets and Cryptic Communication: Making and Breaking Secret Messages from Hieroglyphs to the Internet

I do love to learn new things

Awesome book in very good condition as stated by the seller. I will definitely be purchasing more books from here. This is a fantastic book with every code, cipher and machines to do the coding from antiquity. Fascinating and will be reading and using this for many years to come. EXCELLENT PRICE! Thank you.

Great condition

Have a lot of code booksIt was a nice book for the money (paperback)I am more of a hardback type of Purchaser.I still gave it a very good rating.

This book is a history of codes, ciphers and secret forms of communication from ancient times until the present. It is the most complete and the most current of any such books I have ever found.Complete: I have read many books that talk about Rommel's army reading the codes sent by the American military attache in Cairo. But I didn't know that this was in the 'Black' code, and that the capture of the German radio outpost at Tel-el-Eisa revealed the fact that the Black code had been broken and that then the Allies began using the Black code with false information.Current: The U.S. Navy used a cipher machine during WW II called the ECM Mark II. Information on this machine was declassified in 1996 (60 years after the machine was adopted), and that information is included here.An interesting section of the book is on Unsolved Scripts. Here are some writing samples discovered by archaeologists that remain unsolved.This book does not go into modern computer based codes. These have gotten so complex that you need a book on them by themselves, as well as a degree in mathematics.

I got this book on a whim, and found the information it contained to be incredibly thorough. The ciphers were explained, along with encryption and decryption tips. However, the first quiz in the back for sure, and I don't know how many others, appear to be inaccurate, at least in the copy that I got. The first quiz uses the Polybius Cipher to encrypt a series of famous locations. The first location is 33 11 43 11 45 23 35 34, which decrypted with the Polybius Cipher as instructed reads N A S A U H P O. That isn't a place, as far as I know. The answer key at the back says that the answer to the first location is M A R A T H O N, which encrypted with the Polybius Cipher reads 32 11 42 11 44 23 34 33. All of the letters, except 11 (A), are 1 number off. The rest of the locations have a similar discrepancy. Coincidence? I think not. Has anyone else noticed this?

While this book covers a wide range of topics, I found it to be shaky on some topics. In particular, modern developments such as quantum cryptography, electronic warfare terms (SIGINT, ELINT, and especially RADINT--book description is wrong). Perhaps the author's strength is in historical cryptography, and he has not researched or does not understand modern developments. My overall impression is that the book covers an enormous range of topics, but in a shallow way. Cryptanalysis is not discussed in any depth, unlike other code/cipher books I've read.

Read this book to learn something which most of the people in world don't know.