General books and links
Websites
The
American Cryptogram Association (ACA)
www.und.nodak.edu/org/crypto/crypto
The American Cryptogram Association (ACA) site, which specialises in
setting and solving cipher puzzles.
Cryptography
Frequently Asked Questions
www.cis.ohio-state.edu/hypertext/faq/usenet/
cryptography-faq/top.html
Ohio State University site for 'Frequently Asked (cryptography) questions'.
Cryptologia
Journal
http://www.dean.usma.edu/math/pubs/cryptologia
A quarterly journal devoted to all aspects of cryptology.
Journal
of Cryptology
www.swcp.com/~iacr/jofc/jofc.html
The official journal of the International Association for Cryptologic
Research details all the latest developments and results in all areas
of modern information security.
National
Cryptologic Museum
www.nsa.gov/museum/index.html
The National Cryptologic Museum's website details the various methods
and machinery used in creating codes, which are held as exhibits by
the museum. Each exhibit online is illustrated with colour photographs.
Books/journals
The
Science of Secrecy by Simon Singh (Fourth Estate, 2000) £9.99.
The book that accompanies the Channel 4 series, with more about all
the topics covered in the programmes and on this website.
The
Codebreakers by David Kahn (Simon and Schuster, 1997) £45.00.
A 1,200-page history of ciphers up to the 1950s.
Cryptography
by Lawrence Dwight Smith (Dover, 1955) £6.95.
A simple introduction to cryptography, with more than 150 sample problems.
Cryptology
- Spectrum by Albrecht Beutelspacher (Mathematical Association of
America, 1996) £17.95.
An overview of the subject, from the Caesar cipher to public-key cryptography,
concentrating on the mathematics, rather than the history.
Elementary
Cryptanalysis by Abraham Sinkov (The Mathematical Association of
America, 1978) £16.95.
An explanation of the fundamental techniques of cryptanalysis or codebreaking.
Encyclopaedia
of Cryptology by David E Newton (ABC-Clio, 1997) £12.99.
Clear, concise explanations of most aspects of ancient and modern cryptography.
'The Origins
of Cryptology: The Arab contributions', by Ibrahim A Al-Kadi
Cryptologia, volume 16, no 2 (April 1992), pages 97–126.
A discussion of recently discovered Arab manuscripts.
Top
The Babington plot
Websites
The
Babington Plot
http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/~jmcgill/project.html
University of Pennsylvania educational site about the background
to the plot.
Caesar's
Cipher
http://library.thinkquest.org/28005/flashed/
timemachine/courseofhistory/caesar.shtml
A simple site explaining Caesar's cipher with a simple interactive
programme that allows you to encode your own messages. This window is
part of the US ThinkQuest site, an international challenge for people
aged 12-19 to use the internet for research and learning.
History
of Cryptology
http://home.att.net/~tleary/cryptolo.htm
A paper on the history of cryptology in Elizabethan and Jacobean
times to the Restoration.
Introduction
to Steganography
www.cs.uct.ac.za/courses/CS400W/NIS/
papers99/dsellars/stego.html
University of Cape Town site with a link containing a general
introduction to steganography, charting the developments from Roman
times, through the Middle Ages to the current use of digital 'watermarking'.
Also looks at steganalysis — the science of detecting hidden images.
Steganographics
http://members.tripod.com/steganography/stego.html
A comprehensive site by a US academic on all things steganographic:
history, discussion sites, recommended books, reviews of latest computer
programmes and a newsletter.
Books
Mary
Queen of Scots by Antonia Fraser (Phoenix,16 August 2001) £14.99.
A highly readable account of the life of Mary Queen of Scots.
The
Reckoning: The Murder of Christopher Marlowe by Charles Nicoll (University
of Chicago Press, 1995) £10.99. US edition only. Available through online
bookstores.
A book concentrating on the circumstances surrounding the poet's death
but which contains an interesting chapter on the Babington plot and
generally a great insight into Elizabethan espionage and dirty tricks.
The
Trial of Mary Queen of Scots edited by Jayne Elizabeth Lewis (Palgrave,
1999) £9.99.
A documentary history of the trial of Mary Queen of Scots. Contains
a 35-page introduction on the political and social history of 16th-century
England and 100 pages of documents from the trial.
Top
Hieroglyphs
Websites
Ancient
Egypt
www.ancientegypt.co.uk/writing/home.html
Linked to the British Museum site (see below), this interactive learning
site looks at hieroglyphs and The Rosetta stone, the 'key' that unlocked
the mystery of the ancient script.
The
British Museum
www.thebritishmuseum.ac.uk/education/egypt/home.html
The website of the British Museum in London, which holds the largest
collection of Egyptian artefacts outside Cairo, has a section on Ancient
Egypt providing information sheets and details of courses and events,
plus further reading and web links.
Books
Egyptian
Hieroglyphs by W V Davies (British Museum Press, 1987) £5.59.
Part of series of introductory texts published by the British Museum
Press.
How
to Read Egyptian Hieroglyphs by Mark Collier and Bill Manley (British
Museum Press, 1998) £9.99.
An excellent book for beginners who want to learn about the script of
the ancient Egyptians.
The
Keys of Egypt: The race to read the hieroglyphs by Lesley Adkins
and Roy Adkins (HarperCollins, 2000) £16.99.
The story of the race to decipher hieroglyphs, and the rediscovery of
the Nile Valley after it had been closed to Europeans for nearly 1,500
years.
Top
Le chiffre
indéchiffrable
Websites
Charles
Babbage
http://ei.cs.vt.edu/~history/Babbage.html
Biography of Charles Babbage.
Books/journals
'Babbage
and Cryptography. Or the Mystery of Admiral Beaufort's cipher' by Ole
Immanuel Franksen, Mathematics and Computer Simulation, volume
35 (1993), pages 327-67.
A detailed paper on Babbage's cryptographical work, and his relationship
with Rear-Admiral Sir Francis Beaufort.
The
Cogwheel Brain by Doron Swade (Little Brown, 2000) £14.99.
A fascinating biography of Charles Babbage, focusing on his struggle
to design and build his calculating and computing engines.
The
Victorian Internet by Tom Standage (Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1998)
£6.99.
The remarkable story of the development of the electric telegraph.
Top
The
Zimmermann telegram
Websites
The
Great War Society
www.worldwar1.com/tgws/links.htm
This huge site includes material on the Zimmermann telegram to the
German ambassador in Washington, which changed American public opinion
about the war.
The
Public Record Office
www.pro.gov.uk
Site of the UK Public Record Office (PRO) at Kew, which holds original
documents and public records. The PRO has a file on Nigel de Grey, who
deciphered the Zimmermann telegram. Quote file no. hw3/177 if contacting
the PRO about de Grey.
US
National Archives and Records Administration
www.nara.gov/education/teaching/
zimmermann/zimmerma.html
Exhibits the wording of the Zimmermann telegram, and suggests related
teaching exercises.
Alan
Turing
www.turing.org.uk/turing
The Alan Turing homepage containing photographs of and a detailed biography
and guide to the man who cracked the Enigma code.
Books
The
Zimmermann Telegram by Barbara Tuchman (Ballantine, 1994) £11.00.
An account of this most influential decipherment in all its exciting
detail.
Alan
Turing: The Enigma by Andrew Hodges (Vintage, 1992) £8.99.
The life and work of Alan Turing.
The
Codebreakers; The Inside History of Bletchley Park by F.H. Hinsley
and Alan Stripp (Oxford University Press, 1992) £8.99.
A collection of illuminating essays by the men and women who were part
of one of the greatest cryptanalytic achievements in history.
Enigma
by Robert Harris (Arrow, 1996) £5.99.
A novel revolving around the codebreakers at Bletchley Park.
Seizing
the Enigma by David Kahn (Arrow, 1996) £7.99.
A history of the battle of the Atlantic and the importance of cryptography.
Station
X by Michael Smith (Channel 4 Books, 1999) £5.99
The book based on the Channel 4 TV series of the same name, containing
anecdotes from those who worked at Bletchley Park, otherwise known as
Station X.
Top
Going public
Websites
AT&T
Research Site
www.research.att.com/~smb/nsam-160
A research page on US phone company AT&T's site discussing
the prehistory of the public-key cryptography breakthrough, detailing
the evidence that suggests assorted intelligence agencies knew of the
technique years earlier.
Electronic
Frontier Foundation
www.eff.org
An organisation devoted to protecting rights and freedom on the internet.
The
Information Security Group (ISG)
http://isg.rhbnc.ac.uk
The ISG carries out academic research into areas like smart cards, electronic
commerce, and security management.
RSA
Data Security
www.rsasecurity.com
Home site of RSA laboratories, the company formed to commercialise
the cipher. Contains the usual corporate information: company news,
events, conferences and so on, but interesting in that it gives an impression
of the scale and dynamics of data protection in the digital age.
Books
Applied
Cryptography by Bruce Schneier (John Wiley & Sons, 1996) £35.50.
A comprehensive and authoritative introduction to modern cryptography.
'The Mathematics
of Public Key Cryptography' by M E Hellman, Scientific American,
volume 241 (August 1979), pages 130-39.
An excellent overview of the various forms of public-key cryptography.
'New Directions
in Cryptography' by Whitfield Diffie and Martin Hellman, IEEE Transactions
on Information Theory, volume IT-22 (November 1976), pages 644-54.
The paper revealing the discovery of key exchange, opening the door
to public-key cryptography.
'A New
Kind of Cipher that Would Take Millions of Years to Break' by Martin
Gardner, Scientific American, volume 237 (August 1977), pages
120-124.
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