The Code Book: The Science of Secrecy from Ancient Egypt to Quantum Cryptography
by Simon Singh
30 popular highlights from this book
Key Insights & Memorable Quotes
Below are the most popular and impactful highlights and quotes from The Code Book: The Science of Secrecy from Ancient Egypt to Quantum Cryptography:
Ron Rivest, one of the inventors of RSA, thinks that restricting cryptography would be foolhardy: It is poor policy to clamp down indiscriminately on a technology just because some criminals might be able to use it to their advantage. For example, any U.S. citizen can freely buy a pair of gloves, even though a burglar might use them to ransack a house without leaving fingerprints. Cryptography is a data-protection technology, just as gloves are a hand-protection technology. Cryptography protects data from hackers, corporate spies, and con artists, whereas gloves protect hands from cuts, scrapes, heat, cold, and infection. The former can frustrate FBI wiretapping, and the latter can thwart FBI fingerprint analysis. Cryptography and gloves are both dirt-cheap and widely available. In fact, you can download good cryptographic software from the Internet for less than the price of a good pair of gloves.
if N is large enough, it is virtually impossible to deduce p and q from N, and this is perhaps the most beautiful and elegant aspect of the RSA asymmetric cipher.
the enemy of security: repetition leads to patterns, and cryptanalysts thrive on patterns.
if a message protected by quantum cryptography were ever to be deciphered, it would mean that quantum theory is flawed,
The NSA employs more mathematicians, buys more computer hardware, and intercepts more messages than any other organization in the world.
Enigma was considered invulnerable, until the Poles revealed its weaknesses.
This apparently innocuous observation would lead to the first great breakthrough in cryptanalysis.
The first known European book to describe the use of cryptography was written in the thirteenth century by the English Franciscan monk and polymath Roger Bacon. Epistle on the Secret Works of Art and the Nullity of Magic included seven methods for keeping messages secret, and cautioned: “A man is crazy who writes a secret in any other way than one which will conceal it from the vulgar.
like Turing and the cryptanalysts at Bletchley Park, the Navajo were ignored for decades. Eventually, in 1968, the Navajo code was declassified, and the following year the code talkers held their first reunion.
...říká se, že zkratka NSA ve skutečnosti znamená „Never Say Anything
Turing’s secret had been exposed, and his sexuality was now public knowledge. The British Government withdrew his security clearance. He was forbidden to work on research projects relating to the development of the computer. He was forced to consult a psychiatrist and had to undergo hormone treatment, which made him impotent and obese. Over the next two years he became severely depressed, and on June 7, 1954, he went to his bedroom, carrying with him a jar of cyanide solution and an apple. Twenty years earlier he had chanted the rhyme of the Wicked Witch: “Dip the apple in the brew, Let the sleeping death seep through.” Now he was ready to obey her incantation. He dipped the apple in the cyanide and took several bites. At the age of just forty-two, one of the true geniuses of cryptanalysis committed suicide.
Jack Good, a veteran of Bletchley, commented: “Fortunately the authorities did not know that Turing was a homosexual. Otherwise we might have lost the war.
„Každý, kdo přemýšlí o kvantové mechanice, aniž by se mu zatočila hlava, jí nerozumí.
„Lidé zapojení do debaty o šifrování jsou vesměs inteligentní, čestní a jsou pro depozici klíčů, ale nikdy nemají více než dvě tyto vlastnosti najednou.
„Kolem roku 1790, když byla ratifikována Listina svobod, mohl soukromě mluvit kdokoliv s kýmkoliv - s jistotou, jakou už dnes nemá nikdo - prostě tak, že popošel po cestě kousek od ostatních a podíval se, jestli se někdo neskrývá v keřích.
„Naštěstí nahoře nevěděli, že Turing je homosexuál, jinak bychom také mohli prohrát válku.
Polský úspěch v prolomení Enigmy byl dán třemi faktory: strachem, matematikou a špionáží.
Po první světové válce se Spojenci nebáli nikoho.
Jestliže někdy platí, že nutnost je matkou invence, pak je rovněž možné, že ohrožení je matkou kryptoanalýzy.
diagonally polarized photons are in a quantum quandary when confronted by a vertical Polaroid filter.
In June 1991 he took the drastic step of asking a friend to post PGP on a Usenet bulletin board. PGP is just a piece of software, and so from the bulletin board it could be downloaded by anyone for free. PGP was now loose on the Internet.
Lyndon Johnson and Richard Nixon were guilty of unjustified wiretaps, and President John F. Kennedy conducted dubious wiretaps in the first month of his presidency.
The Vigenère cipher was called “le chiffre indéchiffrable,” but Babbage broke it;
Because a quantum computer deals with 1’s and 0’s that are in a quantum superposition, they are called quantum bits, or qubits (pronounced “cubits”). The advantage of qubits becomes even clearer when we consider more particles.
250 qubits, it is possible to represent roughly 1075 combinations, which is greater than the number of atoms in the universe. If it were possible to achieve the appropriate superposition with 250 particles, then a quantum computer could perform 1075 simultaneous computations,
the development of a fully operational quantum computer would imperil our personal privacy, destroy electronic commerce and demolish the concept of national security. A quantum computer would jeopardize the stability of the world.
necessity is the mother of invention, then
Správné použití kvalitní šifry je velkou pomocí pro obě komunikující strany, avšak nekorektní zacházení se slabou šifrou může vyvolat velmi falešný pocit bezpečí.
Quantum cryptography is an unbreakable system of encryption.
„Než odevzdám tyto dokumenty do rukou veřejnosti, chci říci pár slov těm, jejichž zájem vzbudí, a udělit malou radu, získanou hořkou zkušeností. Zní takto: věnujte hledání jen tolik času, kolik můžete vyšetřit vedle svých běžných povinností. A pokud nemáte žádný volný čas, nechte celou věc být. ... Znovu opakuji: nikdy neobětujte své vlastní zájmy a zájmy své rodiny věci, jež se může ukázat jako iluze. Avšak, jak jsem již řekl, když máte svou denní práci hotovu a pohodlně sedíte u krbu, pak trocha času věnovaného této věci nikomu neuškodí a může přinést odměnu.
