Did you ever try to hide information from your parents when you were young? Did you have all kinds of secret places that you did store your stuff away from the brooding eyes of your parents? Did you ever write a secret message that only your friend/brother/sister could understand? I did this when I was in engineering! There were a few names and references, which I never put in my diary I used to write then. So what did I do – I took a 6×6 Matrix and labeled the horizontal square co-ordinates of the matrix as a numerical integer starting from 1 to 6. Similarly I named the vertical squares co-ordinates from 1 to 6. Next I placed my alphabets A to Z in each of the squares. So whenever I used a letter, all I had to do was look up the table and put in the number generated through the combination of the number formed by looking at the row and column I had placed in. The empty squares I used represented the spaces. So whenever I wanted to refer to the girl I had the crush on in my diary, for the fear that anyone else would come to know, I always used to enter in my diary — 361141223123.
Little did I know then that essentially, what I did was to ENCRYPT my message so that no one read it. I also made sure that the only people who knew the KEY to the matrix, i.e. what type of matrix (6×6 or 7×7) knew about the word I just wrote above! Essentially, I was the CODEMAKER or better still a CRYPTOGRAPHER. However it didn’t take very long for my friend to DECRYPT or decipher this message. A World Wars enthusiast, he knew that such a CIPHER (the algorithm) had been used before, and promptly in around half hour, he did come with the name, and all my secrecy was lost! What he did was breaking the code, which would make him a CODEBRAKER, or more properly CRYPTANALYST. The battle between the cryptographers and cryptanalyst has long since been in our lives, only that we don’t know when we used it. Same is it with the world of scientists, armies, intelligence, governments – whoever wins the cryptology battle, either coming up with new technique, or an idea to break it, wins the race.
Simon Singh brilliantly illustrates the fact above in the book he writes. Simon Singh writes this beautiful book named The Code Book, a brief history of cryptology from the early inception to the latest developments in the cryptology. This is easily one of the best books I have ever read in my life, and it easily compares to another great book – A brief history of time by Stephen Hawking. The author retraces thorough the birth of cryptology, and the difference it made to history of the world.
How did cryptology originate? Who used it? The author traces back the life of queen Mary who used to write encrypted letters to her followers, so as to escape from the prison. However little did she know that, her encrypted letter itself led to her doom. The author retraces how and what she used, and how the code was essentially broken. Though one may feel that the form of cryptology used then was pretty good, it was essentially weak. The way the code was broken is pretty amazing to say the least, and prepares you to all the other parts of the book, which cover more and more complicated form of cryptology.
Essentially, the book is divided into 8 parts. The author begins with the story of the cipher of queen Mary, and traces through the birth and origins of cryptology. In the next chapter, he proceeds to explain a cipher “Le Chiffre Indechiffrableâ€Â, an encryption algorithm which was thought to be un breakable for years together. The author explains the power of the technique and level of encryption it provided. Every time a cipher was broken, a new cipher needed to be born. This is essentially what led to mechanization of ciphers – i.e. machines doing the encryption for you. The author beautifully traces the history of cipher machines, and explains the greatest cipher machine of all times – the ENIGMA machine, which still remains as one of the best ciphers ever made. Changing tracks, the author then presents a decipherment of the ancient languages used by the Egyptian culture. A set of symbols, meaning absolutely nothing at first go, were analyzed and their meaning was understood. It’s an amazing chapter as to what an instinct and deep research could do – the language of Linear B was broken with little or no help at all.
The death of second world war also saw the computer coming into use for the first time. The author then progresses to explain the encryption technologies used with the computer. He explains about the public key cryptography in this chapter, which literally defined a new era of cryptology. Public key cryptography was essentially this – in the code I mention in the beginning, for another person to crack it, he would have to know the key i.e., that is what kind of matrix I used, is it 6×6 or 7×7 or anything else. Once the other person also knows the key, its trivial to get the message back. The problem was – how do I get the other person to know of my key without it being intercepted by others in the first place? The RSA algorithm as the techies know it better, does just that. The makers of RSA algorithm come up with an algorithm where in its possible for me to let others know what key I used, without disclosing it at all! By the way, “RSA†in its true form is pretty unbreakable.
The author the proceeds on to explain the principles of the Pretty Good Privacy (PGP) encryption scheme which was loosely based on RSA. The author then proceeds to explain the effect of quantum mechanics and how if quantum computer were to become a reality, then literally a new era of cryptology has to begun. Why? The algorithms of today like RSA or PGP are so strong, that cryptanalysts are way behind trying to find a way to break this algorithm or find methods to find weakness in algorithms. The author also proposes an algorithm based on quantum theory and claims it to be the algorithm which will never be broken – meaning, an algorithm, which will not break because of its own properties! I suggest the reader read it thoroughly to understand what it is.
All throughout the book, the prose and tone of the book remain constant which is very necessary for such a book. The author brilliantly mixes history with cryptology and how it changed history. The author also gives and acknowledges the efforts of all the individuals who went un-named because they worked for the government agencies and much of their work was never made public. He points out the original people behind the computer, RSA algorithm, and richly pays them his tribute.  The style of the book is amazing. The author uses figures, tables and examples to explain each of the encryption so easily that even a layman can understand everything in the book. That’s where the book scores – it doesn’t cater to geeks or techies; instead, its been written for common people like you and me to know about cryptology better.
Right now, its clearly the cryptographer, or the codemaker who is leading the race in cryptology, by coming up with algorithms which cant be broken. However who knows, behind which secret agency a person might have already broken RSA, but hasn’t come out yet! That is the beauty of cryptology – Breaking the secret, also remains a secret!
As for the message I encrypted above – find out for yourself about the name of the girl!
And while you break my code J, READ THIS BOOK! Its just BRILLIANT.