A Cryptographic Compendium is an outstanding overview of the world of codes and ciphers. Beginning with "paper and pencil systems" ("simple substitution ciphers," "homophones and nomenclators," "polygraphic ciphers and fractionaction," "polyalphabetic substitution," and "code books") and continuing on to look at "electrical and mechanical cipher machines" (including the "Bazeries Cylinder," "Hill Cipher," "RED Machine," "A-22 Cyptograph," "Hageline lug and pin machines," "rotor machines and the PURPLE cousins," and "The Enigma") – and much more – this voluminous compilation is an excellent introduction to cryptography.
Cryptography is another excellent site which examines encryption. For "history, technique, and possible futures" of cryptographic methods such as "Caesar Cipher," "simple Substitution Cipher," "Vignere Cipher," "Gronsfeld cipher," "The German Enigma Machine," "RSA Public Key Encryption," and many others, visit this site published by Trinity College. |
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Codes and Ciphers in the Second World War ("The Website for the History, Science, and Engineering of Cryptoanalysis in World War II, created by Tony Sale") is just that: a good look at "British cryptoanalysts, Alan Turing at the forefront, [who] changed the course of the Second World War and created the foundation for the modern computer." It includes "Tony Sale's reconstruction of Enigma decipherment for the film Enigma" and information regarding Bletchley Park, "the wartime home of Allied code breaking ... transformed into a museum devoted to the recognition and reconstruction" of Allied cryptoanalysis."
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Cryptology: "an exploration into the fundamentals of cryptology. It will not delve too deep into mathematical proofs but is more for those who wish to be aware of some of the basic techniques and strategies of code making and code breaking." Codes, published by St. Andrew's Academy, offers a helpfully illustrated, good, short introduction to encrypting messages. Codes, published by Mindflare, offers information on "making codes" and "breaking codes," as well as "example codes." |
| Codes and Cyphers presents a "general discussion of codes and cyphers (also spelled ciphers) which makes some reference to [the author's] CYPHERM program." Includes "sample cyphers to practice on" and "definitions of cryptography terms" beginning with "unilateral monoalphabetic substitution ciphers." |
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The Code Breakers ("outline of the talk by Bill Velez and David Lovelock, a cryptography presentation for Math Awareness Week") looks at encryption, decryption, encoding, and decoding. With the aid of a "short program to do all the counting work," they decypher an 800-page document by counting "the frequency of each of the letters in [the] enciphered message." |
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Fun With Words: Letter Frequencies explicates: "Etaoin Shrdlu ... believed to be the twelve most common words in English, in order of most frequently used to least frequently used." The article elaborates: "When analyzing the frequency with which letters appear in English, it's important to understand whether you are factoring in the frequency with which individual words are used. For example, the letter 'h' is not found in a comparatively large number of English words, but as it appears in several of the most commonly used words, such as 'the,' 'then,' 'there,' and 'that,' it appears more often in everyday speech and writing than it does in a list of dictionary words. The 'etaoin shrdlu' sequence given above is based on the frequency of letters as they appear in speech and writing."
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| Want to know more? Search Amazon.com for books about codes and cyphers. | |
| Visit Web Mystery Magazine for interesting articles, columns, and reviews by experts and best-selling authors. |
| "Oh!
What a tangled web we weave, When first we practice to deceive."
Sir Walter Scott |
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| "Oh!
What a tangled web we weave, When first we practice to deceive."
Sir Walter Scott |
