The Mathematics of Secrets takes readers on a fascinating tour of the mathematics behind cryptography—the science of sending secret messages. Most books about cryptography are organized historically, or around how codes and ciphers have been used, such as in government and military intelligence or bank transactions. Joshua Holden instead shows how mathematical principles underpin the ways that different codes and ciphers operate. Holden focuses on both code making and code breaking and he discusses the majority of ancient and modern ciphers currently known.
- More information from Princeton University Press
- Table of Contents
- Blog posts about the the book from the PUP website
- How Classical Cryptography Will Survive Quantum Computers
- Quantum cryptography is unbreakable. So is human ingenuity.
- Blog posts on The Aperiodical
- I was a consultant for the sidebar “Great Moments in Encryption“, by Chris Kornelis, The Wall Street Journal, June 4, 2019.
- The book on Facebook, Twitter, and Mastodon
- Cryptography by the Numbers
- Errata
- A course on Classical Cryptography by Karst Koymans, using my book. Includes exercises. (Some are in Dutch.)