If you want a history lesson about the fascinating story of cryptography, look no further, the book by Simon Singh from 2000 has you covered. From ancient codes to modern cryptography, Singh gives an insightful, yet page turning tale of politics, war and bright minds. Throughout the book the reader is taken through both the history and some of the math behind this ever-challenging topic. Singh clearly has a good understanding of both the theory and the application of codes. The book even has a young readers version, maybe this could be a gift for an aspiring code breaker. https://simonsingh.net/books/the-code-book/

Bruce Schneier describes himself as working in the intersection between technology, security and people. In the book Liars and Outliers Schneier discusses how technology and trust affects our society and how our society has affected technology. At the core of this book, is trust and how we can establish trust in various relations. Trust is essential both in secure communication, but also a key component is how we conduct business and It has been praised for its appeal outside the tech-scene and is still relevant, even after its 2011 release.

https://www.schneier.com/books/liars_and_outliers/

The GCHQ Puzzle Book is published in corporation with the GCHQ, the British intelligence service. The book features puzzles that range from solvable to "how can this possibly have an answer". Luckily, there are some introductory problems that help you get used to their style of questions.

There is no hiding that these puzzles are hard, but they are a great way to test your wit against some of the best code breakers in the world.

https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/300160/the-gchq-puzzle-book/9780718185541.html and https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/311109/the-gchq-puzzle-book-ii/9780241365434.html

We cannot believe that it is 25 years since this book was released, many of us were hardly born yet. Steven Levy tells the story of the early hackers, mostly around MIT and Silicon Valley milieu. From the hobbyist that funded computer clubs, via hardware hackers with their own ethics to game developers and the start of the home computer revolution. The book is filled with facts and interviews with the people that actually where there during the infancy of our business. This updated edition contains new afterword with new interviews.

https://www.stevenlevy.com/index.php/books/hackers

If you still have not made plan on where to go next year, we might suggest you have a look at this book. The Geek Atlas covers famous, and not so famous destinations, all related to technology. John Graham-Cumming has selected a diverse range of locations where “science happened”. Each place is described and includes interesting facts about the sites significance in history. On the top of our list is Bletchley Park, where Alan Turing worked as a code breaker in the Government Code and Cipher School (GC & CS).

https://jgc.org

Happy reading...