Cryptology
CS333
Standards
Historical and Popular Books
- The Codebreakers, David Kahn, Sribner, 1996.
(Comprehensive history of cryptology.)
- Between Silk and Cyanide: A Codemaker's War, 1941-1945, Leo Marks, Free
Press, 2000. (Cliffhanger account of Marks code-making work for British spies in
Europe; compelling reading. Check out interview
with Marks)
- The grandparents of American cryptography:
- The Man Who Broke Purple, Ronald Clark, Little Brown, 1977. (Biography of
William Friedman, the father of modern American cryptography, and the story of
how he broke Purple.)
-
The Woman Who Smashed Codes, Jason Fagone, 2017. (The story of
Elizebeth Friedman, based on recently declassified material. Friedman
was better known as the wife of William Friedman, and her story has only
recently emerged. It turns out to be as fascinating as her husbands. The
book is weak on technical cryptographic details, but the story and
history carry it along.)
- The American Black Chamber, Yardley, Aegean Park Press.
(Yardley was in charge of the American Black chamber which existed from 1917 to
1929. There also is a recent biography of Yardley by David Kahn entitled The
Reader of Gentlemen's Mail. Yardley could be considered a great-grandparent
of American cryptography, though according to
William Friedman's
copy of this book, he mostly didn't know what he was talking about.)
- The Code Book, Simon Singh, Anchor, 2000. (Popular historical
account of cryptology, with a fair amount of technical detail.)
- The Cuckoo's Egg, Cliff Stoll, Pocket Books, 1990. (Real life account of
Stoll tracking down a hacker. Better than James Bond.)
-
Cryptonomicon, Neal Stephenson, Harper, 2000.
(Occasionally long-winded novel, containing accurate technical details.)
- The Puzzle Palace, James Bamford, Viking, 1983. (The
early history of the National Security Agency (NSA)).
-
The Shadow Factory,
James Bamford, Random House, 2009. (Bamford continues his story of the NSA
post 9/11).
- The Official CIA Manual of Trickery and Deception, H Keith Melton,
Robert Wallace (eds), William Morrow, 2009. (A training manual for spies
written by famous magician John Mulholland. The training manual itself is
less interesting than the lengthy introductory essay by the editors.)
-
Ciphers for
the Litte Folks, Doroth Crain, Helen Ricketts, Riverbank, 1916. (A
children's book with many graphical illustrations of Bacon's
biliteral cipher. Published by George Fabyan at the Riverbank laboratories,
where the Friedman's got their start.)
Technical Historical Books
- Military Cryptanalytics, Part I and II, Friedman, Callimahos, Aegean Park
Press. (Military training manual for codebreakers. Excellently presented
material.)
- Cryptanalysis, Helen Fouche Gaines
-
Decrypted Secrets, Bauer, Springer, 2002 (3rd edition).
(Extremely comprehensive treatment of classical cryptology up to the end of
WWII)
- Handbook of Applied Cryptography, Menezes, van
Oorschot, Vanstone, CRC 1997. (Comprehensive treatment of modern cryptography).
- Applied Cryptography, Schneier, Wiley, 1996. (Very
applied, includes code.)
- Machine Cryptography and Modern
Cryptanalysis, Cipher A. Deavours, Louis Kruh.
-
Basic cryptanalysis
(field manual, released by the army; many similar books are available at
Aegan Park Press).
Security
Simulators and other Tools
Mathematics
Other
Movies & TV
Marcus Schaefer
Last updated: February 12th, 2018.