Customer Reviews

Elementary Cryptanalysis: A Mathematical Approach (Mathematical Association of America Textbooks)

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This, along with the book by Helen Gaines, is one of the best introductions to classical cryptology, but if you want to go further into contemporary cryptology, you'll need a more recent book. I like Applied Cryptology by Bruce Schneier.

For by far the best book on background but not for mathematics, try The Codebreakers by David Kahn.

All four belong on any crypto bookshelf.

Dr. Sinkov has been-there, done-that. He was in the first group of three mathematicians hired by William Friedman of the Army's Signal Intelligence Service (SIS) back in 1930. After two name changes, the agency became the NSA, and Sinkov became the Chief of Communications Security, and later, Deputy Director for Production.

Using only high school math, the good doctor takes us on a tour of cryptanalysis that is remarkable for it's clarity and completeness. If you don't start with Sinkov's book, you're doing it the hard way.

Sinkov presents the basics of simple cryptanalysis in clear, easy to understand language. His examples and sample exercises that accompany each chapter provide the reader with hands-on practice of the concepts introduced. Whether you are new to the study of cryptography and cryptanalysis or you are well familiar with the basics of the field, Sinkov's presentation will have something to interest you. A mathematical approach to cryptanalysis that is well thought out and easy to understand.

This is simply the best book in elementary cryptanalysis. Every concept is clarified and explained through the examples. There are questions and practice exercises at the end of every chapter.

Sinkov's greatly consistent language is the first thing I have admired, second but not least the clear explanations, the algorithms and the attention that the book should be enough to make the average user understand everything. Many thanks to a true teacher that is at the same time a true expert.

This book is truly a classic in basic cryptanalysis, still one of the best introductions to cryptography available forty years after it was first published. I am currently teaching a course in encryption and data compression and read it
to see if I could find any new ideas. In preparation for the course, I had looked over several potential textbooks for the encryption section, so thought I had all of the basics down. Therefore, I really didn't expect to find anything new in this book.
That expectation was incorrect, I found three additional ideas that I will incorporate into my course. The ideas are easy to understand, yet effective in complicating the writing of computer programs to decrypt messages. Since a great deal of the activities in the class is writing programs, this will increase the amount of fun I will have in challenging the thought processes and coding skills of the students.
If you are interested in learning the basics of encryption and decryption, this book is one of the very best places to start.

Interesting read, the book having being written before the computer revolution is very apparent to this younger reader. But it still seems very relevant. Was good back ground for getting into the field.

This book may have first been published back in 1966 (a fact apparent to many of today's younger readers who are completely baffled as to why such a text doesn't have an accompanying CD), yet it stands out as a classic in the field. I actually use selections from this book with middle school mathematics students in my extracurricular Cryptanalysis Club... and yes, they MUST learn the skill of breaking Viegenere Ciphers by brute force before they may use any of the free online algorithms they always seem to "accidentally" discover using intentionally specific keywords in search engines ("...but, Sir, it's not 1966 anymore...")

Sinkov's book was originally targetted at well prepared high school students. It covers the basic theory of substitution and transposition ciphers, and the tools of cryptographic analysis.

It is sad that the author was not free at the time he wrote the book to explain his own critical contributions to cryptography and the impact on the course of World War II.