100 Best Cryptography Books of All Time
We've researched and ranked the best cryptography books in the world, based on recommendations from world experts, sales data, and millions of reader ratings. Learn more
Throughout the text are clear... more
Stephen Kinsella@gavreilly @SLSingh Love that book (Source)
In 1942, Lawrence Pritchard Waterhouse—mathematical genius and young Captain in the U.S. Navy—is assigned to detachment 2702. It is an outfit so secret that only a handful of people know it exists, and some of those people have names like Churchill and Roosevelt. The mission of Waterhouse and Detachment 2702—commanded by Marine... more
Marc AndreessenThe Sovereign Individual—written 20 years ago, this is the most thought provoking book on the unfolding nature of the 21st Century that I’ve yet read. It’s packed with ideas on every page, many that are now fast becoming conventional wisdom, and many that are still heretical. Two related books to read are The Twilight of Sovereignty and Cryptonomicon. (Source)
Risto SiilasmaaThe one book on Siilasmaa's list is this fantasy offering from Neal Stephenson. The novel relates two parallel stories, one about an elite group of code-breakers in World War II, and another set in the present day, about two grandchildren of members of the group trying to track down a previously unknown – and rumored to be unbreakable – Nazi code. The book's subject matter resonates with current... (Source)
Nick HarkawayCryptonomicon is a real humdinger of a novel. Stephenson is a hugely enjoyable writer of action and comedy, I find him a joy to read. (Source)
"…monumental… fascinating… comprehensive… the definitive work on cryptography for computer programmers…" –Dr. Dobb's Journal
"…easily ranks as one of the most authoritative in its field." —PC Magazine
"…the bible of code hackers." –The Millennium Whole Earth Catalog
This new edition of the cryptography classic provides you with a comprehensive survey of modern cryptography. The book details how programmers... more
Dominic Steil[One of the five books recommends to young people interested in his career path.] (Source)
Caught in an accelerating tempest of secrecy and lies, Susan Fletcher battles to save the agency she believes in. Betrayed on all sides, she finds herself... more
Man has created codes to keep secrets and has broken codes to learn those secrets since the time of the Pharaohs. For 4,000 years, fierce battles have been waged between codemakers and codebreakers, and the story of these battles is civilization's secret history, the hidden account of how wars... more
Tyler CowenI read this one quite young, and learned that problems are to be solved! I also developed some sense of what a history could look like and what a history should report. I recall my uncle thinking it deeply strange that a boy my age should be reading a book of such length. (Source)
Chapters cover the notion of secure encryption, randomness, block ciphers and ciphers, hash functions and message authentication codes, public-key crypto including RSA, Diffie-Hellman, and elliptic curves, as well as TLS and... more
Louis NyffeneggerFew technical books and a bit of everything. The following books are currently sitting on my bedside table: "The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy", "Predictable Revenue", "Manufacturing Consent", "Agile Application Security". "Oauth In Action", "Serious Cryptography". (Source)
WILL BE FOUND
In this stunning follow-up to the global phenomenon The Da Vinci Code, Dan Brown demonstrates once again why he is the world's most popular thriller writer. The Lost Symbol is a masterstroke of storytelling - a deadly race through a real-world labyrinth of codes, secrets, and unseen truths...all under the watchful eye of Brown's most terrifying villain to date. Set within the hidden chambers, tunnels, and temples of Washington, DC., The Lost Symbol accelerates through a startling landscape toward an unthinkable... more
In 2013, twenty-nine-year-old Edward Snowden shocked the world when he broke with the American intelligence establishment and revealed that the United States government was secretly pursuing the means to collect every single phone call, text message, and email. The result would be an unprecedented system of mass surveillance with... more
John SargentEdward Snowden decided at the age of 29 to give up his entire future for the good of his country. He displayed enormous courage in doing so, and like him or not, his is an incredible American story. There is no doubt that the world is a better and more private place for his actions. Macmillan is enormously proud to publish Permanent Record. (Source)
Kara SwisherBtw @Snowden new book “Permanent Record” is quite good and surprisingly a love letter to the Internet as it was. (Source)
Don't have time to read the top Cryptography books of all time? Read Shortform summaries.
Shortform summaries help you learn 10x faster by:
- Being comprehensive: you learn the most important points in the book
- Cutting out the fluff: you focus your time on what's important to know
- Interactive exercises: apply the book's ideas to your own life with our educators' guidance.
A desperate race through the cathedrals and castles of Europe.
An astonishing truth concealed for centuries . . . unveiled at last.
While in Paris, Harvard symbologist Robert Langdon is awakened by a phone call in the dead of the night. The elderly curator of the Louvre has been murdered inside the museum, his body covered in baffling symbols. As Langdon and gifted French cryptologist Sophie Neveu sort through the bizarre riddles, they are stunned to discover a trail of clues hidden in the... more
Neal O'GormanCertainly, a previous non-business book which I really enjoyed (along with many other people) was the Da Vinci Code. I was living in the States at the time, and it was a rare occasion to be on a plane and not see someone reading it. (Source)
In 1916, at the height of World War I, brilliant Shakespeare expert Elizebeth Smith went to work for an eccentric tycoon on his estate outside Chicago. The tycoon had close ties to the U.S. government, and he soon asked... more
Writing with... more
George DysonAlan Turing was born exactly 100 years ago, [editor’s note: this interview was done in 2012] and died aged 41. In those 41 years he led an amazing life that is covered with extraordinary grace, complexity and completeness by Andrew Hodges in this biography. It was first published in 1983 and remains in print. (Source)
"Prodigiously researched and engrossing."---New York Times Book Review
"Fascinating.... Addictively readable."---Boston Globe
"Code Girls reveals a hidden army of female cryptographers, whose work played a crucial role in ending World War II.... Mundy has rescued a piece of forgotten history, and given these American heroes the recognition they deserve."---Nathalia Holt, bestselling author of Rise of the Rocket Girls
Recruited by the U.S. Army and Navy from small towns and... more
Cliff Stoll was an astronomer turned systems manager at Lawrence Berkeley Lab when a 75-cent accounting error... more
James Stanley"The Cuckoo's Egg" by Clifford Stoll is another great book. I believe it's the first documented account of a computer being misused by a remote attacker. It talks about how Clifford attached physical teleprinters to the incoming phone lines so that he could see what the attacker was actually doing on the computer, and how he traced the attacker across several countries. (Source)
It is a suitable text for advanced students in pure and applied mathematics and computer science, or the book may be used as a self-study. This book also provides a self-contained treatment of mathematical cryptography for the reader with limited mathematical background. less
Don't have time to read the top Cryptography books of all time? Read Shortform summaries.
Shortform summaries help you learn 10x faster by:
- Being comprehensive: you learn the most important points in the book
- Cutting out the fluff: you focus your time on what's important to know
- Interactive exercises: apply the book's ideas to your own life with our educators' guidance.
Bitcoin, the first successful decentralized digital currency, is still in its early stages and yet it's already spawned a multi-billion dollar global... more
Hong Qi Yu“Bitcoin and Cryptocurrencies Technologies” and “Mastering Bitcoin” provide a comprehensive yet not too intimidating introduction to the revolutionary yet often misunderstood concept of digital currency. (Source)
Auston BunsenThis [reading something helpful] happens with pretty much every book I read. Most recently it happened to me when I was reading “Mastering Bitcoin” by Andreas Antonoupolous. I had no idea what the components of a Bitcoin wallet address were and he elegantly explains them in detail in chapter 4. It’s particularly relevant because we started CBlocks and we focus almost exclusively on wallet... (Source)
London, 1940. Winston Churchill has just been sworn in, war rages across the Channel, and the threat of a Blitz looms larger by the day. But none of this deters Maggie Hope. She graduated at the top of her college class and possesses all the skills of the finest minds in British intelligence, but her gender qualifies her only to be the newest typist at No. 10 Downing... more
If they were a hall of fame or shame for computer hackers, a Kevin Mitnick plaque would be mounted the near the entrance. While other nerds were fumbling with password possibilities, this adept break-artist was penetrating the digital secrets of Sun Microsystems, Digital Equipment Corporation, Nokia, Motorola, Pacific Bell, and other mammoth enterprises. His Ghost in the Wires memoir paints an action portrait of a plucky loner motivated by a passion for trickery, not material game. (P.S. Mitnick's capers have already been the subject of two books and a movie. This first-person account is...
moreRichard BejtlichIn 2002 I reviewed Kevin Mitnick's first book, The Art of Deception. In 2005 I reviewed his second book, The Art of Intrusion. I gave both books four stars. Mitnick's newest book, however, with long-time co-author Bill Simon, is a cut above their previous collaborations and earns five stars. As far as I can tell (and I am no Mitnick expert, despite reading almost all previous texts mentioning... (Source)
Antonio EramThis book was recommended by Antonio when asked for titles he would recommend to young people interested in his career path. (Source)
Nick JanetakisI'm going to start reading Ghost in the Wires by Kevin Mitnick this week. I used to go to 2600 meetings back when he was arrested for wire fraud and other hacking related shenanigans in the mid 1990s. I'm fascinated by things like social engineering and language in general. In the end, I just want to be entertained by his stories. For someone who is into computer programming, a book like this... (Source)
The revelations of Stephen Budiansky's dramatic history include how Britain tried to manipulate the American codebreakers and monopolize German... more
The man who introduced cryptography to the boardroom says no. But in this fascinating read, he shows us how to come closer by developing security measures in terms of context, tools, and strategy. Security is a process, not a product – one that system administrators and corporate executives alike must understand to survive.
This edition updated with new information about post-9/11 security. less
Digital Gold is New York Times reporter Nathaniel Popper’s brilliant and engrossing history of Bitcoin, the landmark digital money and financial technology that has spawned a global social movement.
The notion of a new currency, maintained by the computers of users around the world, has been the butt of many jokes, but that has not stopped it from growing into a technology worth... more
Hong Qi YuDigital gold presents the most extensive history of bitcoin thus far, making it an invaluable page-turner for crypto aficionados and newbies alike. This is a must read for anyone interested in understanding what many consider to be the greatest invention since the internet. (Source)
Technology controls almost everything in our modern-day world, from remote entry on our cars to access to our homes, from the flight controls of our airplanes to the movements of the entire world economy. Thousands of autonomous computer programs, or daemons, make our networked world possible, running constantly in the background of our lives, trafficking e-mail,... more
Eric Weinstein[Eric Weinstein recommended this book on Twitter.] (Source)
Don't have time to read the top Cryptography books of all time? Read Shortform summaries.
Shortform summaries help you learn 10x faster by:
- Being comprehensive: you learn the most important points in the book
- Cutting out the fluff: you focus your time on what's important to know
- Interactive exercises: apply the book's ideas to your own life with our educators' guidance.
Colossus was built during the Second World War at the Government Code and Cypher School at Bletchley Park. Until very recently, much about the Colossus machine was shrouded in secrecy, largely because the code-breaking algorithms that were employed during World War II remained in use by the... more
George DysonAfter Enigma, the Germans developed more powerful encryption with higher-speed digital equipment that was much harder to break. The British side, led by [the engineer] Tommy Flowers, built a vacuum tube machine called Colossus – an extremely powerful and sophisticated digital computer which helped the British to break these even stronger codes. By the end of the war there were at least 10 of... (Source)
This fascinating account relates the never-before-told, hair-raising stories of the heroic British and American sailors, spies, and secret agents who faced death in order to capture vital codebooks from sinking ships and snatch them from under the noses of Nazi... more
The Herculean test of your grit is as follows: Find the word or phrase solution to each one of my encrypted logic puzzles, called Theorems. Doing so will earn you entry into the elite ranks of The Master Theorem. It may take you some time, but trust me—it’ll be worth it.
What's in it for you:
Read my cryptic ramblings alongside each encrypted logic puzzle, called a Theorem Decipher each puzzle to reveal the word or phrase answer Become an expert in codes, ciphers, and... more
Ben Goldacre@szbalint it's such a great book, i've always said @rossjanderson should release it in chunks as pop science books. the massive textbook shape doesn't do its accessibility, readability and content justice! (Source)
The powers that surveil us do more than simply store this information. Corporations use surveillance to manipulate not only the news articles and advertisements we each see, but also the... more
Don't have time to read the top Cryptography books of all time? Read Shortform summaries.
Shortform summaries help you learn 10x faster by:
- Being comprehensive: you learn the most important points in the book
- Cutting out the fluff: you focus your time on what's important to know
- Interactive exercises: apply the book's ideas to your own life with our educators' guidance.
The authors introduce the core principles of modern cryptography, including the modern, computational approach to security that overcomes the limitations of perfect secrecy. An extensive treatment of private-key encryption and message authentication follows. The authors also illustrate... more
In January 1917, the war in Europe was, at best, a tragic standoff. Britain knew that all was lost unless the United States joined the war, but President Wilson was unshakable in his neutrality. At just this moment, a crack team of British decoders in a quiet office known as Room 40 intercepted a document that would change history. The Zimmermann telegram was a... more
The CISSP certification is the most prestigious, globally-recognized, vendor neutral exam for information security professionals. Over 100,000 professionals are certified worldwide, with many more... more
In 1939 several hundred people - students, professors, international chess players, junior military officers, actresses and debutantes - reported to a Victorian mansion in Buckinghamshire: Bletchley Park. This was to be 'Station X', the Allies' top-secret centre for deciphering enemy codes.
Their task was to break the ingenious Enigma cypher used for German high-level communications. The settings for the... more
Here is a scrupulously documented account–much of which is based on unprecedented... more
Don't have time to read the top Cryptography books of all time? Read Shortform summaries.
Shortform summaries help you learn 10x faster by:
- Being comprehensive: you learn the most important points in the book
- Cutting out the fluff: you focus your time on what's important to know
- Interactive exercises: apply the book's ideas to your own life with our educators' guidance.
Matt Odell@figsOS @CashApp @MartyBent Love it. Now tell him/her to go read @skwp's new book. Great place to start. https://t.co/pGk00Bp3V0 (Source)
In the first activity book based on the Explorer Academy, kids test their knowledge of ancient codes and ciphers in a series of head-scratching puzzles designed to outwit even the most clever cryptographers. When kids successfully navigate the codes, they are rewarded with a first-class tour of the Academy.
Kids will have a blast, teaming up with the characters from the series and learning firsthand from the world's most renowned... more
The National Security Agency grew out of the legendary codebreaking programs of World War II that turned the tide of Allied victory by cracking the famed Enigma machine and other seemingly impenetrable German and Japanese codes. But things became murky in the postwar years, when our intelligence community found itself targeting not battlefield enemies, but suspected spies, foreign leaders, and even American citizens. Now Stephen Budiansky--a longtime expert in... more
Joseph Bruchac brings their stories to life for young adults through the riveting fictional tale of Ned Begay, a sixteen-year-old Navajo boy who becomes a code talker. His grueling journey is... more
Like it or not, your every move is being watched and analyzed. Consumer's identities are being stolen, and a person's every step is being tracked and stored. What once might have been dismissed as paranoia is now a hard truth, and privacy is a luxury few can afford or understand.
In this explosive yet practical book, Kevin Mitnick illustrates what is happening without your knowledge--and he... more
There were two Second World Wars: one fought on the battlefields, and another conducted by men and women few of whom ever fired a weapon in anger, but whose efforts vastly influenced the conflict.
‘The Secret War 1939-45’ examines that other war waged by British, American, German, Russian and Japanese intelligence-gathering personnel. Moving chronologically through the conflict, Max Hastings charts the... more
Alan PierceThis is a great book for overall understanding of primarily modern western building and the many different building styles and materials employed. (Source)
Don't have time to read the top Cryptography books of all time? Read Shortform summaries.
Shortform summaries help you learn 10x faster by:
- Being comprehensive: you learn the most important points in the book
- Cutting out the fluff: you focus your time on what's important to know
- Interactive exercises: apply the book's ideas to your own life with our educators' guidance.
After a quick crash course in programming, you'll make, test, and hack classic cipher programs. You'll begin with simple programs like the Caesar cipher and then work your way up to public key cryptography and the RSA cipher, which is used for modern secure data transmissions.
Each program comes with the full code and a line-by-line explanation of how things work. By book's end, you'll... more
No other book has explained so thoroughly how the job was done, and how so often a flash of genius, an inspired... more
In Europe, the exquisite and resourceful Eliza, Countess de la Zeur, is stripped of her immense personal fortune by France's most dashing privateer. Penniless and at risk from those who desire either her or her head (or both), she is caught up in a web of international intrigue, even as... more
Rather than merely showing how to run existing exploits, author Jon Erickson explains how arcane hacking techniques actually work. To share the art and science of hacking in a way that is accessible to everyone, Hacking: The Art of Exploitation, 2nd Edition introduces the fundamentals of C... more
Don't have time to read the top Cryptography books of all time? Read Shortform summaries.
Shortform summaries help you learn 10x faster by:
- Being comprehensive: you learn the most important points in the book
- Cutting out the fluff: you focus your time on what's important to know
- Interactive exercises: apply the book's ideas to your own life with our educators' guidance.
Cryptography is the lifeblood of the digital world's security infrastructure. From governments around the world to the average consumer, most communications are protected in some form or another by cryptography. These days, even Google searches are encrypted. Despite its ubiquity, cryptography is easy to misconfigure, misuse, and... more
Many call the fifteenth-century codex, commonly known as the “Voynich Manuscript,” the world’s most mysterious book. Written in an unknown script by an unknown author, the manuscript has no clearer purpose now than when it was rediscovered in 1912 by rare books dealer Wilfrid Voynich. The... more
Challenging, baffling, and absorbing, these cryptograms are easy to read in large-size print. The strings of seemingly meaningless letters are actually carefully coded messages that will test and stimulate your wordplay skills. You don't have to be a professional code breaker or super spy to figure them out, and there's no need to struggle while reading them. All you have to do is enjoy solving the puzzles! less
From Michael J. Casey and Paul Vigna, the authors of The Age of Cryptocurrency, comes the definitive work on the Internet's Next Big Thing: The Blockchain.
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Kevin WerbachThey’re journalists who are good at telling a story. They explain the possibilities of blockchain and hone in on the broader potential—this idea of a truth machine. It’s the idea that what’s going on here is more than just the specific applications of blockchain—that this might be a fundamentally new mechanism of achieving agreement and consensus about the state of the world, in a decentralized... (Source)
Tyler WinklevossAwesome chat last night with @paulvigna and @mikejcasey, two of the greatest minds in cryptocurrency. Check out their new book #TheTruthMachine https://t.co/ciTEhpXnes https://t.co/B8PuEdFqoj (Source)
Jeremy GardnerI’ll never pump a coin, but I’ll always promote good writers. It was great catching up with @mikejcasey and hearing about “The Truth Machine,” his new book with @paulvigna. It’s sure to be full of insights on the most revolutionary technology since the internet! https://t.co/CYok1K747N (Source)
And sometimes it is simply deadly...
A three-hour drive from Washington, D.C., two clandestine institutions face each other across a heavily guarded river. One is the world's most unusual laboratory, whose goals and funding are a mystery. The other is an elite CIA training camp shrouded in secrecy. Now a man and a woman are about to run a gauntlet between these two puzzle factories, straight into a furious struggle to exploit a potentially world-shattering discovery--and keep some other secrets underwraps forever...
Former secret... more
Don't have time to read the top Cryptography books of all time? Read Shortform summaries.
Shortform summaries help you learn 10x faster by:
- Being comprehensive: you learn the most important points in the book
- Cutting out the fluff: you focus your time on what's important to know
- Interactive exercises: apply the book's ideas to your own life with our educators' guidance.
After an introduction to cryptography and data security, the authors explain the main techniques in modern cryptography, with chapters addressing stream ciphers, the Data Encryption... more
Pssst! Do you know the difference between a code and a cipher? Can you tell a St. Cyr slide from a Cardano grille? Did you know that the discovery of a substitution cipher caused Mary Queen of Scots to lose her head? Don't look now, but packed into this practical field guide is everything a young person needs to know about the art of concealment - making and breaking codes, mastering cipher systems, and experimenting with secret... more
First introduced in 1995, Cryptography: Theory and Practice garnered enormous praise and popularity, and soon became the standard textbook for cryptography courses around the world. The second edition was equally embraced, and enjoys status as a perennial bestseller. Now in its third edition, this authoritative text continues to provide a solid foundation for future breakthroughs in cryptography.
WHY A THIRD EDITION?
The art and science of cryptography has been evolving for thousands of years. Now, with unprecedented amounts of information circling the... more
Designed as a complete self-study program, this collection offers a variety of proven resources to use in preparation for the CompTIA Cybersecurity Analyst (CySA+) certification exam. Comprised of CompTIA CySA+ Cybersecurity Analyst Certification All-In-One Exam Guide (CS0-001) and CompTIA CySA+ Cybersecurity Analyst Certification Practice Exams (Exam CS0-001), this bundle thoroughly covers every topic on the exam.
CompTIA CySA+ Cybersecurity Analyst... more
Everything is a computer. Ovens are computers that make things hot; refrigerators are computers that keep things cold. These computers—from home thermostats to chemical plants—are all online. The Internet, once a virtual abstraction, can now sense and touch the physical world.
As we open our lives to this future, often called the Internet of Things, we are beginning to see its enormous potential in ideas like driverless cars, smart cities, and personal agents equipped... more
Alexander StubbI will get this book. Looks interesting beyond the title...Click Here to Kill Everybody by Bruce Schneier via @FT https://t.co/GGCRlsTflT (Source)
Undeniably, one of the most hyped technologies of our era, is the “Blockchain” technology and digital currencies: a technology that promises more digitalised and decentralised economies. Recently,... more
Don't have time to read the top Cryptography books of all time? Read Shortform summaries.
Shortform summaries help you learn 10x faster by:
- Being comprehensive: you learn the most important points in the book
- Cutting out the fluff: you focus your time on what's important to know
- Interactive exercises: apply the book's ideas to your own life with our educators' guidance.
Coverage includes:
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It's Easter at Princeton. Seniors are scrambling to finish their theses. And two students, Tom Sullivan and Paul Harris, are a hair's breadth from solving the mysteries of the Hypnerotomachia Poliphili--a renowned text attributed to an Italian nobleman, a work that has baffled scholars since its publication in 1499. For Tom, their... more
Al final, ni siquiera Wagner o el "oro del Rhin" han de resultar ajenos a la plural y camaleónica trama de Criptonomicón, un tour de force... more
Codes have been used for centuries. Now, with the help of this entertaining book, you, too, will be able to decipher dozens of secret messages. Veteran cryptographer Bud Johnson not only describes the different techniques used in secret writing but also explains — clearly and simply — how to make and break six different kinds of codes: simple... more
Learn to use the most important codes and methods of secret communication in use since ancient times. Cipher and decipher codes used by spies. Explore the famous codes that changed the fate of nations and political leaders. And enjoy hours of fun experimenting with cryptography ― the science of secret writing.
Beginning with simple letter substitutions and transposition ciphers, world-famous science writer Martin Gardner explains how to break complicated polyalphabetical ciphers and codes worked with grids, squares,... more
This fully updated, industry-standard security resource shows how to fortify computer networks by learning and effectively applying ethical hacking techniques. Based on critical topics that the authors teach at major security conferences and colleges, the book features actionable planning and analysis methods as well as practical steps for identifying and combating both targeted and opportunistic attacks.
Gray Hat Hacking: The Ethical Hacker's Handbook, Fifth Edition,... more
Much has been written about the success of the British “Ultra” program in cracking the Germans’ Enigma code early in World War II, but few know what really happened in 1942, when the Germans added a fourth rotor to the machine that created the already challenging naval code and plunged Allied intelligence into darkness.
Enter one Joe Desch, an unassuming but brilliant engineer at the National Cash Register Company in Dayton, Ohio, who was given... more
Don't have time to read the top Cryptography books of all time? Read Shortform summaries.
Shortform summaries help you learn 10x faster by:
- Being comprehensive: you learn the most important points in the book
- Cutting out the fluff: you focus your time on what's important to know
- Interactive exercises: apply the book's ideas to your own life with our educators' guidance.