Kevin’s Reviews > The Code Book: The Science of Secrecy from Ancient Egypt to Quantum Cryptography > Status Update

Interesting history of PGP (Pretty Good Privacy), its legalese and societal questions surrounding the human right to cryptography. There are a few things that I would like follow up on, as this book was published at the end of the last millenia. Are there still security strength restrictions on cryptographic software exported from the US? What effect has 9/11 had on the wiretapping policies of government agencies?

Great account of the discovery of public-key encryption highlighting the contrast between the secrecy of military research and collaborative nature of academic research.

I just finished the fascinating segment on the contributions of the Navajo code talkers in the second world war. Also, I gained a much better understanding of how the Enigma machine worked. I want to build one! Simon Singh may be my new favorite author, he explains complicated topics like cryptography in a way that is easily accessible to anyone with a cursory understanding of logic, puzzles and problem-solving.