DecryptedSecrets

The VENONA Project. In July 1995 the Intelligence Community ended a 50-year silence regarding one of cryptology's most splendid successes - the VENONA Project. VENONA was the codename used for the U.S. Signals Intelligence effort to collect and decrypt the text of Soviet KGB and GRU messages from the 1940's. These messages provided extraordinary insight into Soviet attempts to infiltrate the highest levels of the United States Goverment.

Decrypted Secrets: Methods and Maxims of Cryptology by F.L. Bauer.
Cryptology, for millennia a "secret science", is rapidly gaining in practical importance for the protection of communication channels, databases, and software. Beside its role in computerized information systems (public key systems), more and more applications inside computer systems and networks are appearing, which also extend to access rights and source file protection. The first part of this book treats secret codes and their uses -- cryptography. The second part deals with the process of covertly decrypting a secret code -- cryptanalysis -- where in particular advice on assessing methods is given. The book presupposes only elementary mathematical knowl-edge. Spiced with a wealth of exciting, amusing, and sometimes personal stories from the history of cryptology, it will also interest general readers.
Table of contents

Handbook of Applied Cryptography. Cryptography, in particular public-key cryptography, has emerged in the last 20 years as an important discipline that is not only the subject of an enormous amount of research, but provides the foundation for information security in many applications. Standards are emerging to meet the demands for cryptographic protection in most areas of data communications. Public-key cryptographic techniques are now in widespread use, especially in the financial services industry, in the public sector, and by individuals for their personal privacy, such as in electronic mail. This Handbook will serve as a valuable reference for the novice as well as for the expert who needs a wider scope of coverage within the area of cryptography. It is a necessary and timely guide for professionals who practice the art of cryptography.

Building in Big Brother:The Cryptographic Policy Debate Edited by Lance J. Hoffman- This book presents the best readings on cryptographic policy and current cryptography trends. Topics include a survey of cryptography, the new "key escrow" systems, the Government solution, the debate between law enforcement views and civil liberties, and export control analysis. Detailed technological descriptions of promising new software schemes are included as well as analysis of the constitutional issues by legal scholars. Important government cost analyses appear here for the first time in any book.

Cracking DES.This book was written to reveal a hidden truth. The standard way that the US Government recommends that we make information secure and private, the "Data Encryption Standard" or DES, does not actually make that information secure or private. The government knows fairly simple ways to reveal the hidden information (called "cracking" or "breaking" DES). Many scientists and engineers have known or suspected this for years. The ones who know exactly what the government is doing have been unable to tell the public, fearing prosecution for revealing "classified" information. Those who are only guessing have been reluctant to publish their guesses, for fear that they have guessed wrong.
electronic version.

Applied Cryptography : Protocols, Algorithms, and Source Code in C by Bruce Schneier - Offers an authoritative introduction to the field of cryptography, suitable for both the specialist and the general reader. The book adopts an encyclopedic approach to cryptographic systems throughout history, from ciphers to public key cryptography

The Codebreakers; The Comprehensive History of Secret Communication from Ancient Times to the Internet by David Kahn - A detailed history of cryptography.

Secret Code Breaker: A Cryptanalyst's Handbook by Robert Reynard - A useful book on how to solve a variety of cipher systems with a computer. Separate chapters describe the Skytale cipher, Polybius Square cipher, Caesar cipher, Vigenere, Transposition, Monoalphabetic Keyword and M-94 ciphers. Other chapters explain the use of frequency analysis, the German Enigma cipher machine, and how to use the computer programs which simulate the operation of the M-94 and the Enigma machine.

Secret Code Breaker II: A Cryptanalyst's Handbook II by Robert Reynard - Reynard highlights the history, background and use of each cipher type and procedure, i.e. cribs and RTA, with many interesting details. Among the 50 ciphers to solve are 16 genuine secret messages encrypted by Enigma, Larrabee, Vigenère and other cryptosystems.

Digital Fortress a novel by Dan Brown When Susan Fletcher, a brilliant NSA cryptographer, is called in to decipher a mysterious code the agency has just intercepted, she discovers the NSA is the target of a billion dollar blackmail scheme that threatens to unleash the worst intelligence disaster in U.S. history.