Over time, there is no guarantee that a cipher or code, which is safe one day is not vulnerable the next. Enciphering techniques are constantly developing and need to be incorporate into modern information systems. The Code Book contains several important lessons for today’s cyberspace citizens. Although encryption in internet systems has drastically improved since his book’s release in 1999, today’s citizens are still subject to devastating cyberattacks because of a lack of adequate encryption. He speculates that one significant problem is that individuals do not encrypt their information enough, especially as it is transmitted over the Internet. His chapter on today’s information age where information is a “valuable commodity” (p. Singh discusses the increasing value of encryption in the information age and the potential of quantum cryptography. This leads into Singh’s second purpose: to demonstrate the relevance of codes and ciphers into today’s society. Singh also reveals how codebreakers accomplished their work to demonstrate that as long as codemakers develop new codes and ciphers, codebreakers will continue to break them. Sharing the story of the Enigma Machine in World War II, he shows the evolution from encryption by hand to encryption by machine. Additionally, he discusses the story behind the Beale Papers to introduce how codemakers use keys to encrypt their messages. He discusses how secret writing evolved into steganography and cryptography, how cryptography developed into transposition and substitution, and lastly, how substitution evolved into codes and ciphers. He uses Mary Queen of Scots to show the evolution of secret writing and the development of cryptography. To illustrate his first point, Singh shares stories about well-known ciphers such as those involving Mary Queen of Scots, the Beale Papers, and the Enigma. We, as student and instructor in a course entitled Networks for Cyber Operations, used this book as one of our texts in the Spring semester of 2016.
He enthusiastically presents stories surrounding ciphers such as who created them, who sought to break them, and if and how the codebreakers were successful. Throughout the eight chapters, he discusses the elements of complex ciphers and simplifies the mathematical details for a general audience. The first is to show the evolution of codes and ciphers, and the second is to demonstrate their relevance in today’s society. Singh specifically lists two purposes for this book. The Code Book is about the mathematics and science of codes and ciphers throughout history. The Code Book: The Science of Secrecy from Ancient Egypt to Quantum Cryptography
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