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The Code Book: The Science of Secrecy from Ancient Egypt to Quantum Cryptography is a book by Simon Singh, published in 1999 by Fourth Estate and Doubleday.

Key Information

The Code Book describes some illustrative highlights in the history of cryptography, drawn from both of its principal branches, codes and ciphers. Thus the book's title should not be misconstrued as suggesting that the book deals only with codes, and not with ciphers; or that the book is in fact a codebook.[1]

Contents

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The Code Book covers diverse historical topics including the Man in the Iron Mask, Arabic cryptography, Charles Babbage, the mechanisation of cryptography, the Enigma machine, and the decryption of Linear B and other ancient writing systems.[2][3]

Later sections cover the development of public-key cryptography. Some of this material is based on interviews with participants, including persons who worked in secret at GCHQ.

The book concludes with a discussion of "Pretty Good Privacy" (PGP), quantum computing, and quantum cryptography.

The book announced a "cipher challenge" of a series of ten progressively harder ciphers, with a cash prize of £10,000, which has since been won.[4]

The book is not footnoted but has a "Further Reading" section at the end, organized by chapter.

See also

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References

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Bibliography

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The Code Book

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The Code Book: The Science of Secrecy from to is a 1999 by British author and science that provides an accessible , tracing the development of codes and ciphers from ancient civilizations to modern computational methods. Published initially by in the UK and Doubleday in the , the book spans approximately 400 pages and combines historical narratives with explanations of the mathematical principles underlying techniques. , whose previous work Fermat's Enigma (1997) popularized , drew inspiration for The Code Book from cryptography's intersections with during his research. The narrative covers pivotal moments in cryptology, including ancient and Greek scytales, the polyalphabetic ciphers of , the role of codebreaking in the execution of , and efforts to crack the German at . It also discusses post-war advancements like the (DES) and pioneered by Rivest, Shamir, and Adleman (RSA), culminating in explorations of quantum cryptography's potential to revolutionize secure communications. Beyond its scholarly content, The Code Book includes a global Challenge—a series of puzzles with a £10,000 prize—to engage readers in practical codebreaking. The book became a , inspiring a five-part television series titled The Science of Secrecy (2000), which won the Vega Award for science , an interactive , and a young adult adaptation. Its clear prose and dramatic storytelling have been praised for demystifying cryptography's profound influences on warfare, , and privacy in the digital age.

Publication and Background

Publication History

The Code Book was first published in September 1999 by Fourth Estate in the United Kingdom and Doubleday in the United States. The hardcover edition in the UK carried ISBN 1-85702-879-1, while the US version used ISBN 0-385-49531-5. Paperback releases appeared in 2000, with the UK edition assigned ISBN 1-85702-889-9 and the US paperback ISBN 0-385-49532-3. Included with the book was the Cipher Challenge, a series of ten progressively difficult ciphers designed by the author, accompanied by a £10,000 prize for the first individual or team to solve them all. Later editions encompass a teenage adaptation, The Code Book: The Secrets Behind Codebreaking, released in 2003 by Delacorte Press in the US with ISBN 0-385-73062-4, and an ebook version published in 2011 with ISBN 978-0-307-78784-2.

Author Background

Simon Singh was born on 19 September 1964 in , , to parents of Indian Sikh origin who had emigrated from , in 1950. He grew up in a farming family background and pursued studies in physics at , earning a first-class degree in 1987, before completing a PhD in particle physics at the in 1990. After his doctorate, joined the in 1991 as a and director, where he worked on documentaries for series such as Horizon and the counterpart Nova until 1997. A key project was his direction of the 1996 Horizon episode The Proof, which chronicled mathematician ' quest to solve and was later adapted for Nova, blending rigorous with engaging storytelling. This documentary experience inspired Singh's shift to authorship, resulting in his debut book Fermat's Enigma (1997), a that established his signature approach to narrating complex scientific histories in an accessible manner. His fascination with cryptography emerged from references to code-breaking in that work, prompting deeper research into historical ciphers like the —leading him to acquire an original for study—and a commitment to popularizing the evolution of secrecy and code-breaking for general audiences. This culminated in The Code Book (1999), a natural extension of his efforts to demystify scientific milestones.

Synopsis

Introduction and Ancient Cryptography

In The Code Book, introduces as an enduring intellectual between codemakers, who devise systems to conceal messages, and codebreakers, who seek to uncover them, a contest that has profoundly shaped historical events from ancient battles to modern digital security. This dynamic is illustrated through early examples where secrecy provided strategic advantages, such as concealing plans or protecting sacred , setting the stage for cryptography's evolution as a tool for privacy and power. Singh emphasizes that each advancement in encoding prompts a corresponding breakthrough in decryption, mirroring biological evolution and underscoring cryptography's role in safeguarding information against interception. The earliest known cryptographic practice dates to around 1900 BC in , where scribes employed hieroglyphic substitutions in tomb inscriptions to obscure meanings, possibly for ritualistic or protective purposes. In the tomb of at , non-standard symbols replaced conventional hieroglyphs, such as unusual depictions of birds or animals, rendering the text unintelligible to casual readers while maintaining symbolic harmony for initiated viewers. This substitution method, though rudimentary, represents an intentional alteration to confuse outsiders, marking one of the first documented uses of in a non-military context. By the , the Spartans developed the , a mechanical for secure military communications during campaigns like the . The device consisted of a cylindrical wooden staff around which a strip of leather or parchment was spirally wrapped without overlaps; the sender wrote the message vertically along the exposed sections, then unwound the strip to produce a jumbled sequence of letters. To decrypt, the recipient rewrapped the strip around a matching staff of identical diameter, realigning the letters into coherent rows—a process reliant on physical secrecy rather than linguistic complexity, as described by ancient sources like . Julius Caesar employed a simple in the to protect dispatches from Roman legions, shifting each letter in the Latin alphabet by three positions (e.g., A to D, B to E, wrapping Z to C). For encryption, the plaintext "VENI" becomes "YHQL" under this rule; decryption reverses the shift by three positions backward. This , while easily broken by today, demonstrated early systematic encoding for wartime secrecy, as noted in Suetonius's accounts of Caesar's practices. Singh also draws on Herodotus's Histories (c. 440 BC) for examples of ancient , including the story of , a Spartan exile in Persia, who in 480 BC warned of Xerxes' invasion plans. Demaratus scraped wax from a wooden tablet, inscribed the message on the bare wood, and recoated it with fresh wax to appear blank, evading Persian scrutiny until a sharp-eyed Lacedaemonian recognized the anomaly and heated the tablet to reveal the text. This steganographic technique highlights early codebreaking ingenuity, where physical inspection trumped encoded content.

Classical and Early Modern Ciphers

In the 9th century, Arab scholar made a groundbreaking contribution to by developing the first systematic method of code-breaking through . This technique exploited the predictable frequency of letters in natural languages, such as the common occurrence of certain characters in Arabic texts, allowing cryptanalysts to infer substitutions in monoalphabetic ciphers by comparing ciphertext patterns to known linguistic statistics. Al-Kindi's treatise, Risala fi Istikhraj al-Mu'amma, outlined this approach, marking a shift from intuitive guessing to scientific decryption and laying the foundation for future cryptanalytic methods. During the , advanced cipher design in 1467 with his invention of the disk, a mechanical device that introduced variable substitution alphabets to evade . The disk consisted of two concentric rotating wheels: the outer fixed with the standard alphabet and the inner movable with a shifted or mixed alphabet, enabling the encoder to change the substitution scheme at irregular intervals by adjusting the wheels. This innovation, detailed in Alberti's De Cifris, represented a precursor to more complex polyalphabetic systems, as it allowed for multiple alphabets to be used within a single message, complicating statistical attacks. In 1586, French diplomat published Traicté des Chiffres, describing a tableau-based known as le chiffre indéchiffrable (the indecipherable cipher), which used a keyword to select shifting alphabets for . The method involved creating a square tableau of 26 alphabets, each shifted progressively from the standard ABC... sequence, forming a grid where rows represented plaintext letters and columns corresponded to key letters. To encrypt, the sender repeated the keyword to match the message length, then for each plaintext letter, located it in the left column of the tableau and the corresponding key letter at the top, taking the intersection as the ciphertext letter; decryption reversed this by using the key to find the plaintext row. Although not entirely unbreakable due to potential key repetition, Vigenère's system significantly enhanced security over fixed substitutions by distributing letter frequencies across multiple alphabets. That same year, employed nomenclators—specialized codebooks combining homophonic substitutions, syllabic codes, and symbolic representations—in her clandestine correspondence during the against Queen Elizabeth I. These nomenclators assigned unique symbols or numbers to common words, names, and phrases, supplemented by variable letter substitutions to obscure high-frequency elements and resist partial analysis. Intercepted in 1586, her coded letters were deciphered by Thomas Phelippes using frequency insights and contextual deduction, leading to her trial and execution, and underscoring the vulnerabilities of even advanced manual systems in political intrigue. In the early 20th century, engineer laid historical groundwork for unbreakable with his 1917 invention of a telegraphic , which used a random key tape to XOR with , though initially employing repeating keys. This system, patented in 1919, anticipated the when combined with truly random, non-repeating keys of equal length to the message, providing perfect secrecy if keys were securely managed and discarded after use. Vernam's work bridged manual ciphers to mechanized communication security, influencing cryptographic evolution amid rising technological demands.

World War II Cryptography

In The Code Book, describes the as a pivotal innovation in wartime , invented by German engineer in 1918 as a rotor-based device designed for secure commercial communications but later adapted for military use. The machine employed rotating wheels, or rotors, that substituted letters through a series of electrical pathways, with each key press advancing the rotors to produce a different , rendering it far more complex than previous manual ciphers. By the time of its deployment in , the Enigma offered approximately 102010^{20} possible settings due to combinations of rotor selections, wiring configurations, initial positions, and ring settings, making brute-force decryption impractical without insight into its mechanics. Singh highlights the groundbreaking efforts of Polish cryptanalysts , Jerzy Różycki, and , who achieved a major breakthrough in 1932 by exploiting the mathematical properties of Enigma's permutations to recover the machine's internal wiring without physical access. Working under secrecy, they developed the cyclometer, an electromechanical device that cataloged cycle structures in Enigma's permutations from intercepted messages, enabling them to reconstruct the rotor wirings and daily settings. This mathematical approach, rooted in group theory, allowed the Poles to decrypt German traffic periodically until 1939, when they shared their findings with British and French allies just before the war's outbreak, providing a crucial foundation for Allied codebreaking. The narrative shifts to Bletchley Park, where British mathematician Alan Turing built upon Polish techniques to design the Bombe machine, operational from 1940, which automated the testing of Enigma rotor settings through a logical process rather than exhaustive enumeration. Turing's innovation involved chaining multiple Enigma simulacra to detect inconsistencies in assumed settings based on known plaintext "cribs," such as repeated phrases in German messages, thereby reducing the search space from millions of possibilities to a manageable few dozen candidates per run. Over 200 Bombes were eventually deployed, processing vast volumes of intercepted traffic and yielding the Ultra intelligence that informed key Allied strategies, from the Battle of the Atlantic to the Normandy landings. Singh also contrasts European mechanized efforts with the human ingenuity of the Navajo Code Talkers in the Pacific theater, a group of Diné () Marines who created an unbreakable code by assigning native words to military terms—such as "łééchąąʼí" for "foxhole" (rabbit) and "łééchąąʼíłchʼííʼ" for "" (iron fish)—transmitting messages orally in their complex, unwritten language that baffled Japanese cryptanalysts. Approximately 400 Code Talkers served, ensuring secure communications during operations like , where their rapid, error-free transmissions saved countless lives. The book emphasizes the war-altering impact of these cryptographic triumphs, particularly Ultra's decryption of Enigma, which historians credit with shortening by up to two years by enabling decisive victories and averting potential disasters, such as the undetected wolf packs. This intelligence, kept secret until the , demonstrated how codebreaking shifted from arcane puzzles to a strategic weapon, influencing post-war computing developments.

Computer-Age and Public-Key Cryptography

In The Code Book, explores the evolution of into the computer age, highlighting the limitations of symmetric systems and the revolutionary shift to , which addressed the critical challenge of securely exchanging keys over insecure channels without prior shared secrets. Symmetric ciphers, such as those used in earlier eras, required both parties to possess the same secret key beforehand, posing significant risks in digital networks where interception was inevitable; , by contrast, employ mathematically linked key pairs—a public key for and a private key for decryption—allowing open dissemination of the public key while keeping the private one secret. This innovation, born from the computational power of computers, transformed from a tool of wartime secrecy into a foundation for everyday secure communications like and . A pivotal development Singh details is the Diffie-Hellman key exchange protocol, introduced in 1976 by and , which enables two parties to agree on a key across an untrusted network using the mathematical difficulty of the problem. In the protocol, publicly agree on a large prime modulus pp and a generator gg (both non-secret). Alice selects a private exponent aa, computes her public value A=gamod  pA = g^a \mod p, and sends AA to Bob; similarly, Bob chooses bb, computes B=gbmod  pB = g^b \mod p, and sends BB to Alice. Each then derives the shared key: Alice calculates Bamod  p=(gb)amod  p=gabmod  pB^a \mod p = (g^b)^a \mod p = g^{ab} \mod p, while Bob computes Abmod  p=gabmod  pA^b \mod p = g^{ab} \mod p, yielding the same result without ever transmitting the exponents directly. Singh illustrates this with a simple example using p=7p = 7 and g=3g = 3: if Alice's a=3a = 3 yields A=33mod  7=6A = 3^3 \mod 7 = 6, and Bob's b=5b = 5 yields B=35mod  7=5B = 3^5 \mod 7 = 5, Alice computes the shared key as 53mod  7=65^3 \mod 7 = 6, while Bob computes 65mod  7=66^5 \mod 7 = 6, demonstrating how modular exponentiation creates a secure one-way trapdoor. An eavesdropper, Eve, sees only pp, gg, AA, and BB, but solving for aa or bb (the ) is computationally infeasible for large pp, ensuring security. Building on this foundation, devotes significant attention to the RSA algorithm, devised in 1977 by Ronald Rivest, , and , which provides a complete public-key cryptosystem grounded in the hardness of factoring large composite numbers. Key generation begins with selecting two large distinct primes pp and qq; the modulus n=p×qn = p \times q is computed, along with Euler's totient ϕ(n)=(p−1)(q−1)\phi(n) = (p-1)(q-1). A public exponent ee is chosen such that 1<e<ϕ(n)1 < e < \phi(n) and gcd⁡(e,ϕ(n))=1\gcd(e, \phi(n)) = 1 (commonly e=[65537](/page/65,537)e = [65537](/page/65,537) for efficiency), then the private exponent dd satisfies d×e≡1mod  ϕ(n)d \times e \equiv 1 \mod \phi(n), computed via the . The public key is the pair (n,e)(n, e), freely shared, while the private key is dd. transforms mm (where 0≤m<n0 \leq m < n) into c=memod  nc = m^e \mod n; decryption recovers m=cdmod  nm = c^d \mod n, leveraging that mϕ(n)≡1mod  nm^{\phi(n)} \equiv 1 \mod n for gcd⁡(m,n)=1\gcd(m, n) = 1, ensuring cd=(me)d=med=mkϕ(n)+1=(mϕ(n))k×m≡1k×m≡mmod  nc^d = (m^e)^d = m^{ed} = m^{k \phi(n) + 1} = (m^{\phi(n)})^k \times m \equiv 1^k \times m \equiv m \mod n. Singh employs the classic Alice-and-Bob metaphor to clarify RSA's practical application in without pre-shared keys. Bob generates his key pair and publishes the public key (n,e)(n, e); Alice, wishing to send a secret message mm to Bob, encrypts it as c=memod  nc = m^e \mod n and transmits cc over an open channel. Eve, intercepting cc, cannot feasibly compute mm without factoring nn to derive dd, a task that becomes exponentially harder as nn grows—for instance, a 1024-bit nn (about 308 digits) resists cracking by even supercomputers for millennia. Bob alone decrypts cdmod  n=mc^d \mod n = m using his private dd. Singh provides a toy example with p=61p=61, q=53q=53, yielding n=3233n=3233, ϕ(n)=3120\phi(n)=3120, e=17e=17, and d=2753d=2753: encrypting m=65m=65 gives c=2790c=2790, and decrypting 27902753mod  3233=652790^{2753} \mod 3233 = 65, underscoring the system's elegance despite the computational intensity of large exponents, which mitigates efficiently. As a counterpoint to these asymmetric advances, contrasts them with the symmetric (DES), adopted in 1977 by the U.S. National Bureau of Standards as a benchmark for encrypting 64-bit blocks with a 56-bit key using 16 rounds of substitution and permutation. While DES offered robust protection initially—resistant to all but brute-force attacks—its short key length exposed it to exhaustive search: with 256≈7.2×10162^{56} \approx 7.2 \times 10^{16} possibilities, modern hardware could crack it in hours by 1998, as demonstrated by the Electronic Frontier Foundation's DES Cracker, rendering it obsolete for high-stakes applications and highlighting the need for longer keys or asymmetric alternatives like RSA. In scenarios involving , DES requires secure prior key exchange (potentially via Diffie-Hellman), but its speed makes it suitable for bulk data encryption once keys are established, influencing hybrid systems in use today.

Quantum Cryptography and Future Prospects

In the concluding chapters of The Code Book, Simon Singh explores the intersection of quantum mechanics and cryptography, emphasizing how principles from physics could enable unbreakable codes by leveraging the fundamental limits of measurement. Central to this discussion is Heisenberg's uncertainty principle, which posits that it is impossible to simultaneously determine certain pairs of physical properties, such as position and momentum, with arbitrary precision for a quantum particle. In the cryptographic context, this principle implies that any attempt to eavesdrop on a quantum transmission—by measuring the state of a quantum particle—will inevitably disturb the system, introducing detectable errors that alert the communicating parties to the presence of an intruder. Singh highlights this as a paradigm shift from classical cryptography, where undetected interception is possible, to a regime where security is enforced by the laws of physics themselves. A key example Singh examines is the BB84 protocol, developed by Charles Bennett and in 1984, which serves as the foundational method for (QKD). In , Alice sends Bob a stream of , each polarized in one of four states: 0° or 90° (representing bits 0 or 1 in a rectilinear basis) or 45° or 135° (in a diagonal basis). Bob measures each using randomly chosen bases, and afterward, they publicly compare their basis choices to discard mismatched measurements, reconciling a key while detecting any eavesdropping-induced discrepancies through error rate analysis. This process exploits quantum —preventing perfect copies of unknown quantum states—ensuring that Eve cannot intercept without introducing noise, as quantified by the . Singh presents not just as a theoretical construct but as a practical step toward immune to computational attacks. Singh also addresses the dual-edged nature of quantum technology, noting that while it promises enhanced security, poses existential threats to existing public-key systems like RSA. Peter Shor's 1994 algorithm demonstrates how a sufficiently powerful quantum computer could factor large integers exponentially faster than classical methods, exploiting —where qubits exist in multiple states simultaneously—and entanglement, which links qubits such that the state of one instantly influences another, regardless of distance. This capability would shatter RSA's security, which relies on the presumed difficulty of factoring the product of two large primes, rendering much of modern asymmetric cryptography obsolete. To counter such vulnerabilities, Singh revisits the (OTP) as the gold standard of unbreakable symmetric encryption, proven information-theoretically secure by in 1949, where is XORed with a truly random key of equal length, used only once. The OTP, originally mechanized by in 1917 and refined with random key generation by Joseph Mauborgne, eliminates all redundancy, ensuring reveals no information about the without the key. Looking ahead, speculates on a future where and computing evolve in tandem, potentially enabling global networks of unbreakable secure channels via satellite-based QKD, as demonstrated in early experiments. Yet, he cautions that realizing this vision requires overcoming practical challenges like photon loss over distance and the need for trusted hardware, while quantum computers could widen a " gap" if not matched by quantum-secure alternatives. Ultimately, envisions quantum methods closing the historical arc of , transforming secrecy from an of wits into a physically enforced certainty.

Reception

Critical Reviews

The Code Book received widespread acclaim from professional reviewers for its engaging narrative and accessibility to non-experts. In a 1999 New York Times review, Richard Bernstein described it as an "entertaining and edifying survey" of cryptography's history, praising Singh's clear explanations of mathematical concepts that make the subject understandable even to those with limited numeracy skills. Similarly, a 2000 review highlighted the book's verve and insight in covering the evolution of codes, commending its historical accuracy and skillful storytelling. Some reviewers noted minor oversimplifications of complex topics, such as the behind RSA encryption, to suit lay readers, though this was generally seen as a strength for popularization rather than a flaw. In academic circles, the book has been endorsed for its introductory value in education. It appears on syllabi for university courses, such as the University of Virginia's CS588 on , where it is recommended for contextual background, and the University of Minnesota's Math 5248 on cryptology and , serving as supplementary reading to illustrate historical developments. Other programs, including the Boulder's Math 4440 on coding and , praise its readable account of the field's history. Aggregate user ratings reflect strong appreciation for its educational impact, with an average of 4.3 out of 5 on based on over 28,000 reviews as of 2025, where readers frequently emphasize its role in making code-breaking concepts approachable and inspiring further interest in the subject.

Commercial Success

The Code Book achieved notable commercial success shortly after its 1999 publication, becoming an international and appearing on non-fiction bestseller list in 2000. The book has been translated into numerous languages, significantly expanding its global accessibility and sales potential. Its embedded Cipher Challenge—a sequence of ten progressively complex ciphers offering a £10,000 prize—drew widespread media attention when solved in October 2000 by a Swedish team after nearly a year of international efforts, further boosting the book's visibility and . Simon Singh's contributions, including The Code Book, earned him the 2016 JPBM Communications Award from the Joint Policy Board for Mathematics, recognizing his impactful popularization of mathematical topics.

Legacy

Cipher Challenge

The Cipher Challenge is an interactive puzzle integrated into Simon Singh's The Code Book, consisting of ten encrypted messages presented at the end of the book as a sequential series of ciphers of increasing difficulty. The stages begin with simpler techniques, such as monoalphabetic substitution and Caesar shifts, and progress to more complex methods including homophonic substitution, Vigenère ciphers, Playfair, ADFGVX transposition, Enigma simulation, DES, and RSA, often incorporating elements from historical examples discussed in the book like the Vigenère tableau. Each solved stage provides a codeword necessary to unlock the next, ensuring solvers must proceed methodically while applying concepts such as and hands-on. The challenge's rules stipulated that participants submit complete solutions to all ten stages to claim the £10,000 prize offered by for the first valid entry, with submissions directed to the author via mail or email. To aid participants, periodically released hints on his , such as clues about potential keys or historical for particularly stubborn stages. This structure fostered global collaboration, with an international enabling discussions among amateur and professional without revealing solutions. Launched alongside the book's publication in September 1999, the challenge remained unsolved for over a year until October 7, 2000, when a team of five Swedish researchers—Fredrik Almgren, Andersson, Torbjörn Granlund, Ivansson, and Staffan Ulfberg—submitted the first complete solution, utilizing computational tools for brute-force attacks and advanced algorithms like the General Number Field Sieve for the final RSA stage. Their effort, documented in a detailed report, highlighted the blend of manual and programming required, especially for later stages that demanded significant processing power. By engaging readers directly in codebreaking, the Cipher Challenge served an educational purpose, teaching cryptographic principles through practical application and sparking interest in the field among tens of thousands of participants worldwide. It demonstrated how historical and modern techniques could be tested in a real-world puzzle, reinforcing the book's themes without requiring prior expertise beyond the text's guidance.

Adaptations and Cultural Impact

In 2000, broadcast a five-part documentary series titled The Science of Secrecy, hosted by and directly adapted from The Code Book, exploring the through dramatic reenactments and expert interviews. The series received the 2001 Vega Award for Best Science Programme from the European Science Foundation, recognizing its excellence in science broadcasting. A youth-oriented adaptation, The Code Book for Young People: How to Make It, Break It, Hack It, Crack It, was published in 2002 by Delacorte Books for Young Readers, condensing and illustrating the original content to make cryptographic concepts accessible to teenagers aged 12–16. This version retains the historical narrative while adding hands-on activities to encourage about codes and ciphers. The Code Book has permeated , bolstering education and public awareness. The Cipher Challenge inspired the annual National Cipher Challenge, launched in 2003 by the , which has engaged thousands of students worldwide in codebreaking competitions as of 2025. By demystifying encryption's role in safeguarding communications, The Code Book heightened public awareness of concerns during the rise of the . As of 2025, The Code Book endures as a seminal reference amid rapid progress in , which threatens classical systems like RSA through algorithms such as Shor's, underscoring the book's prescient discussions on future-proof .

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  57. https://www.hpcwire.com/2000/10/27/the-cipher-challenge-finally-falls/
  58. https://www.ams.org/news?news_id=2897
  59. https://cryptocellar.org/files/codebook_solution.pdf
  60. https://plus.maths.org/issue13/news/codes/2pdf/index.html/op.pdf
  61. https://www.amazon.com/Code-Book-Young-People-Break/dp/0385900325
  62. https://www.cipherchallenge.org/
  63. https://baos.pub/the-code-book-unlocking-the-secrets-of-cryptography-65c4aad746fe
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