Rating: 
Summary: Absolutely Amazing
Review: If there was more than five stars available this book would get them! This book starts off with basic substitution and caesar shift ciphers and works its way up to PGP and even has a section on quantum cryptography. Perfect for beginners or experts in the field of cryptography, this book is an absolute gold mine! It's worth the price alone for all the historical facts you get from it also.
Rating:
Summary: A book for anyone who enjoys reading
Review: To be brief, Mr. Singh's "The Code Book" is an excellent read.
Although the story, tracing the developement of cryptology and cryptanalysis through history, is in itself very interesting, what impressed me the most was the author's style of writing and manner in presenting the subject at hand. His delivery is easy-going yet detailed, weaving a story that is not only, dare I say, educational, but also simply "hard to put down." This is indeed a book for anyone who enjoys reading, regardless of alterior interests.
Rating:
Summary: Extraordinary
Review: The book was superb. I have never had any Popular Science book hold my attention in this way since reading George Gamow's One Two Three...Infinity.
The author shows excellent knowledge about the subject matter, explains complicated mathematics and technology with patience and also with success, and combines the Scientific details with excellent story telling.
The history of cryptography and cryptanalysis is fascinating and the author captures all the details with excellence.
From the engineering intricacies of Enigma to the amazing story of the Navajo Cryptographers; from the complex mathematics of RSA to the details of the PGP; from the cypher of Mary Queen of Scots and the naive encryption of Julius Caeser to the futuristic description of the Quantum Computer; from the life of the multitalented minds like Charles Babbage and Wilfred Diffie to the stories of the unsolved cowboy ciphers promising unlimited riches....the book is a treat and a wealth of information. Compared to the drab, dry and utterly journalistic approach of the modern writers on popular science, this is a gem of its genre.
Rating:
Summary: Stellar historical perspective on codes and decoding
Review: At first blush, a history of cryptology (encoding and decoding messages) would seem to be dry, boring and filled with mathematical gibberish. Singh's masterful work is anything but. It is exciting, nerve-wracking and perfectly understandable even to the mathematically challenged.The underlying theme of the book is the incessant battle between those who would create unbreakable codes and those would strive to break them. His captivating anecdotes describe the historical uses of encrypted messages for purposes of romance, war-making and business... and they are all delightful. It's testament to Singh's ability that even topics such as one-time pad ciphers, the inner workings of the Nazi's Enigma device, the incredibly complicated language of the Navajo code talkers and even quantum cryptology become almost easy to digest. Throw in bonus topics like the Beale code (a fantastic story!) and the deciphering of heiroglyphics (the Rosetta Stone was not a panacea!) and you have the makings of a truly exceptional work. Singh's work is as unique as it is stellar. This is one book that anyone interested in history _must_ read.
Rating:
Summary: Everyone Loves a Secret!
Review: The Code Book, by Simon Singh, is a tantalizing peek at the history of cryptography. He begins with the brilliance of the Egyptians, moves through the breakthrough discoveries of Arab scholars, to the European aristocratic intrigues of the middle ages, wartime use in WWI and II, to today; where security and encryption is part of our everyday lives and daily transactions. The author is skilled at presenting both "sides" of the drama - the needs and desires of the code-makers coupled with the motivations and thought processes of the code- breakers! He has taken an amazingly complex topic and presented it in a way that is mostly accessible to the average interested reader. I was mainly captivated by the historical documentation and the wartime code use. I found the quantum leap less understandable, although Singh does an excellent job at bringing up questions about civil liberties and the responsibilities and consequences of living in a "secure" world. It is important to include that Singh explains "Public Key Encryption" - arguably, the very most important development in security in recent times, along with the personal stories of the men who were credited with public key discovery, and those unsung heroes who were not. A fascinating off shoot of The Code Book is the Cipher Challenge consisting of 10 cyphers of increasing difficulty that the author provides in the appendix. Singh understands that nothing is as engaging as a secret to be uncovered or a mystery to be solved. Over 10,000 people participated in his challenge and it was finally solved 18 months later by a team of Swedish researchers. One of the amazing facts of their solution was their ability to crack the most difficulty RSA cipher by writing a number field sieve algorithm thereby letting an "ordinary" computer crack the code! Will the development of a truly unbreakable code ever exist? If it does, Simon Singh will be able to tell us about it. His website is even more fascinating than The Code Book. It has joined my "favorites' list! ...
Rating:
Summary: An excellent introduction to cryptography
Review: Simon Singh is an incredible writer. While I was already familiar with much of the material he covered (many of these ciphers will be used in a college class on cryptography or computer security), I simply couldn't put this book down; his skill in telling the history of cryptography makes this a must-read. While this is an easy-to-read book, not a textbook, the interested reader will find instructions for solving various ciphers, letter frequency charters, and even a famous unsolved cipher. I highly recommend this for anyone interested in codes and ciphers.
Rating:
Summary: Great history
Review: The degree to which Mathematics has influenced the course of history is astounding. This book provides a highly readable account of the role codes and codebreakers have played throughout history. It chronicles the development of cryptography from Caesar's time through the World Wars to the massive NSA projects of today...and makes it comprehensible. An excellent book.
Rating:
Summary: Cryptology Demystified!
Review: Here comes another absorbing tale from Simon Singh after his equally gripping "Fermat's Last Theorem". Singh must be applauded for successfully rejuvenating this arcane subject and making it accessible to the curious as well as the specialist. Cryptology is as old as human civilization and the need to put a message in a code or a cipher led to its birth. Since then it had become an inalienable part of statecraft, diplomacy, war and government strategy and now in commercial transactions. Cryptology is a science of encrypting a plain text message/data by a use of a cryptographic algorithm or cipher and making the message secure(cryptography/code-making) and in reverse decrypting the cipher text by various analytical/mathematical tools and breaking the secure data(cryptoanalysis/code-breaking). This book traces the incredible history of cryptology from the time of Caesar (the Caesar Shift cipher) to the present day attempts to secure data using quantum physics(quantum cryptology). This type of encryption is supposed to be so strong that it is impossible to break it with present day tools, but initial strides made in the development of quantum computer(based on the property of subatomic particles to attain all possible quantum states all at once as stated by the Copenhagen Interpretation and therefore computing results of different variables all at one go and thus it's potency, unlike in the present day computers where computation is done sequentially, taking one variable at a time). In between, Singh has plenty to discuss about the development of the Vigenere Cipher(16th century), ADFGVX cipher(used in WW-1), DES and finally to RSA encryption method. In RSA if an extremely large value of 'n' (product of two massive primes) are taken then the combined effort all the computers on this planet will be unable to break the RSA cipher even if they kept on working MANY TIMES the age of the universe! This is because factoring 'n' into its two large primes is extremely difficult. RSA is presently being commercially used for secure internet communications, on smart cards, secure telephones and many commercial software products. RSA differs from other encryption system because it uses public key cryptography, where key exchange could be done on non-secure lines unlike in other cases where secret key exchange is used and which has to be done in highly secure lines. After completing the book, I found some missing topics like a discussion on the Elliptic Curve Cryptosystems, the adoption of the Rijndael algorithm as the AES(Advanced Encryption System). However, these omissions in no way weakens subject. Singh has also peppered his storytelling with interesting anecdotes for good measure. Though present day cryptology is heavily dependent on mathematical tools, this book barely contains any mathematics(Only RSA details some math). However, no math does not mean the book is in any way incomplete. All in all, a truly engrossing and fascinating tale about the science of secret writing which doesn't remain so secret in front of Simon Singh's masterly storytelling. Riveting!
Rating:
Summary: Engaging, fascinating, and very relevant
Review: It's said that a good writer can make any subject interesting. In "The Code Book", Simon Singh takes an interesting subject and makes it not only fascinating - but understandable. Singh has a PhD in physics as well as a talent for incorporating lucid explanations into a well-told story. His book offers a historical survey of the ongoing struggle between those who create encrypted (disguised) messages and the enemies who would decode those messages. The book is a only a survey, not an authoritative history, but it gives a tremendous feel for the subject. It ranges from ancient times to present-day efforts in the mysterious world of quantum cryptography. Throughout, Singh's thorough and illuminating analogies and explanations make the encryption and decryption techniques themselves accessible to the intellectually curious layperson. "The Code Book" was published before 9/11/01, but after reading it, you'll wonder if the US National Security Agency (NSA) is focused right now on building a quantum computer that can crack encrypted terrorist messages. I'm guessing they are, with as much urgency as Alan Turing and his colleageus in England worked to crack Germany's "Enigma" machine in World War II (read all about that in Singh's book). And if they succeed, it will have enormous implications for online privacy and security. Which, incidentally, is a subject that Singh also covers in an effective, objective manner when he recounts the development of "Pretty Good Privacy" in the 1990's. "The Code Book" should appeal broadly to anyone who is the slightest bit curious about this fascinating subject. Encryption isn't just the stuff of spies and nerdy mathematicians, it is (and has been) of vital importance throughout history. Side note: Technology managers who want to gain a fuller appreciation for the methods and circumstances of modern-day, computer-enabled encryption should read this book.
Rating: 
Summary: Good Introduction to Cryptography
Review: I read this book after reading 'Cryptonomicon' by Neal Stephenson, which is a fictional novel that also deals with secret codes and cryptography (and is an excellent read by the way). I wanted to know more about the subject of cryptography, so I tried this book out. It a very good introduction to the subject. It simplied the concepts enough so that they were easy to understand. Another good feature of this book, is that it wasn't all technical - there are historical aspects of secret codes and how those codes were broken. Simon Singh has done an excellent job of taking a complex subject, and making it an enjoyable read. If you're a curious mind who enjoys understanding how things work, read this book.
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