Feb 26, 2009 Posted by booktiger on Feb 26, 2009 in History, Science | 0 comments

The Code Book – Simon Singh

Did you know that there are still encrypted letters around from the 1800’s which no-one has been able to decipher yet? And did you know that the Enigma code was well on the way to being cracked even before the Second World War broke out? And were you aware that the encryption currently being used to send email is so strong that it appears to be unbreakable? If you know nothing at all about cyphers, codes, encryption and code breakers, then Simon Singh’s fascinating history of codes is well worth the read.

Singh traverses the history of code makers and code breakers from the time of Mary, Queen of Scots all the way through to the present day. Because all but the most recent forms of encryption have been broken, each code explanation is accompanied by it’s solution and a description of how that solution was reached, which makes it seem strangely simple. Yet we know that some of these codes took years or even centuries to break. Like any puzzle which is simple when you have the key, any code seems laughably breakable once enough people have put their logic and intellect together in order to break it. Although, as fast as the code breakers have prevailed, new forms of encryption have been created, rendering the puzzle harder and deeper until we have arrived at where we are today, with the code makers in the lead. Of course, the one message that comes out of this history is that eventually, a solution to the code will be found. Whether this proves true of the current form of encryption, time will only tell but the game of leap frog will continue.

As much as I love history, I had no idea about what the Enigma code was and why it was so difficult to break – which is the part of the book I found most intriguing. Enigma straddled the times of the earlier, pre-machine and primitive-machine codes and the type of encryption which is computer generated today. If it hadn’t been for the genius of both a little known Pole called Marian Rejewski and the better known tragic genius of Alan Turing, the Enigma may have held fast and the course of the Second World War may have been very different. The sheer brilliance of the minds of the code breakers is almost unfathomable to the rest of us who settle on some mental arithmetic and think we are pretty sharp. When faced with the unintelligable messages that Enigma produced, and the urgency with which they had to be deciphered, it took a particular type of mind to prevail. I have so much respect for the intellect required, and so much gratitude that it was used.

I have to admit, reading The Code Book has made me look at my email differently. Sometimes the simplest things can make the most impenetrable barrier. If someone has the ability to crack the encypherment of today, then my hat is off to them already. And Simon Singh will have to add another chapter to this already comprehensive and fascinating book.

Rating: 9/10
ISBN: 1-85702-879-1
Publisher: Fourth Estate Ltd
Year: 1999
Date Finished: 23 January 2009
Pages: 394