Welcome to the History of Cryptography!

This class is presented as part of the Portland Underground Grad School. Click below to jump to notes for each week.

Week 1 - Introduction and Classical Cryptography

Click here for the Week 1 handout.

Click here for the slides from Week 1.

How to Talk About Cryptography

  • Defining terms
  • Alice and Bob, et al.
  • Cryptographic notation

Principle Concepts

  • Predictability
  • Randomness
  • Security and Usability
  • Trust
  • Thinking like an attacker

Classical Cryptography

  • Substitution Ciphers (Atbash, Caesar, pigpen)
  • Scytale (σκυτάλη)
  • Steganography
  • Histiaeus and the tattooed scalp

Learning: Transposition Ciphers

Homework: Create an Encrypted Message

Explore: Codes, Ciphers, Encryption and Cryptography at Braingle

http://www.braingle.com/brainteasers/codes/index.php

Week 2 - Cryptanalysis through World War I

Click here to go to the Week 2 Handout. Click here for the Week 2 class slides.

Medieval Cryptography

  • Development of cryptanalysis by al-Kindi around 800 CE. Most significant development in cryptography until WWII.
  • Frequency analysis
  • Curious texts (Voynich manuscript, etc.)
  • Johannes Trithemius, et al.

Early Modern Cryptography

  • Edger Allen Poe
  • Charles Babbage
  • Great Cipher
  • Mata Hari
  • Room 40 (WWI)

Learning: The Playfair Cipher

Homework: Cryptanalysis - Crack an encrypted message

Explore: The Voynich Manuscript

http://www.voynich.nu/

Suggested Reading

Non-Fiction

Department of the Army. Basic Cryptanalysis: Field Manual No. 34-40-2. Washington, DC, 1990. This is available freely online in several formats.

Kahn, David. The Codebreakers. London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1974.

Schneier, Bruce. Applied Cryptography: Protocols, Algorithms, and Source Code in C. 2nd ed. New York: Wiley, 1996.

Wikipedia. “Outline of cryptography.” http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Outline_of_cryptography

Fiction

Caldwell, Ian, and Dustin Thomason. The Rule of Four. New York, NY: Dial Books. 2004.

Doyle, Arthur Conan. “The Adventure of the Dancing Men.” The Return of Sherlock Holmes. 1903.

Eco, Umberto. Foucault’s Pendulum. New York: Harcourt, Brace, Jovanovich. 1989.

Pears, Iain. An Instance of the Fingerpost. New York: Riverhead Books. 1998.

Poe, Edgar Allen. “The Gold-Bug.” 1843.

Sayers, Dorothy L. “The Learned Adventure of the Dragon’s Head.” Lord Peter Views the Body. 1923.

Sayers, Dorothy L. Have His Carcase: A Lord Peter Wimsey Mystery. 1932.

Stephenson, Neal. The Baroque Cycle. London: Arrow Books, 2004.

Stephenson, Neal. Cryptonomicon. New York: Avon Books. 1999.

Verne, Jules. Journey to the Center of the Earth. 1877.