Decrypted Secrets Methods and Maxims of Cryptology

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, cryptology is finding more and more applications inside computer systems and networks, extending to access rights and source file protection. The first part of this book treats secret codes and their uses - cryptography - before moving on to the process of covertly decrypting a secret code - cryptanalysis. Spiced with a wealth of exciting, amusing, and occasionally personal stories from the history of cryptology, and presupposing only elementary mathematical knowledge, this book will also stimulate general readers.