Codebreaker: The HiStory of Codes and Ciphers, from the Ancient Pharaohs to Quantum Cryptography.CODEBREAKER: The HiStory of Codes and Ciphers, from the Ancient Pharaohs to Quantum Cryptography An encryption method that can detect eavesdropping. Using optical transmission to send a secret key to the other side, quantum cryptography draws on the inherent properties of photons, which become slightly altered if they are observed by an intruder. STEPHEN PINCOCK Since the early clays of written symbols, scribes Scribes is a text editor for GNOME that is simple, slim and sleek, and features no tabs, auto-completion and much more. Scribes is Free Software licensed under the terms of the GNU GPL. have used encryption The reversible transformation of data from the original (the plaintext) to a difficult-to-interpret format (the ciphertext) as a mechanism for protecting its confidentiality, integrity and sometimes its authenticity. Encryption uses an encryption algorithm and one or more encryption keys. for amusement as well as for concealment. Pincock details the history of ciphers, codes, and code breaking. Shortly after the year 750, Muslim scholars realized that in any language, letters appear with regular frequency and that analysis based on that fact could crack ciphers. Pincock details historic events that were affected by the use of codes, including Mary Queen of Scots' encrypted messages to Queen Elizabeth's would-be assassins assassins Fanatical Moslem sect that smoked hashish and murdered Crusaders (11th—12th centuries). [Islamic Hist.: Brewer Note-Book, 52] See : Assassination assassins and the cracking of the famous Enigma ciphers during World War II. Pincock also details still-unbroken codes, including that of the mysterious Voynich Manuscript and that used by a serial killer serial killer Forensic psychiatry A person who commits serial murders Prototypic SK White ♂ age 30; 97% are ♂; 80% are sociopaths. See Dahmer, Depraved heart murder, Ice Man. Cf Megan's law, Son of Sam law. in California during the 1960s and "70s. The modern world, he notes, has an increasing reliance on cryptolagy for protecting information sent digitally. Walker, 2006, 176 p., color photos, hardcover, $19.95. |
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