暗号解読―ロゼッタストーンから量子暗号まで [単行本]

 『フェルマーの最終定理』に続き、世界的ベストセラーとなったサイモン・シンの話題作『The Code Book』の邦訳。 暗号は古代から重要な情報を安全に伝達する手段であったが、絶えず解読の危険性をはらんでいた。本書は、暗号とその解読にまつわる歴史上のドラマをひも解きながら、暗号の重要性と進化の歴史について語っている。

   英国女王エリザベス1世暗殺に関する暗号文書が破られ、処刑されたメアリー・スチュワートの事件をはじめ、レオナルド・ディカプリオ主演の映画『仮面の男』（原作はデュマの『鉄仮面』）にも出てくるフランスの鉄仮面に関する文書、埋蔵金のありかが示されているという謎の「ビール暗号」、第1次世界大戦、第2次世界大戦の様相を変えた暗号解読者たちのテクニックなど、読者の知的好奇心をくすぐるトピックが数多く登場する。暗号が我々の歴史にいかに大きな影響を与え続けてきたのかがよくわかる。

   転置式暗号、換字式暗号といった単純な暗号化の方法から、複雑なヴィジュネル暗号、エニグマ暗号、単純だが決して破られることのなかったナヴァホ暗号のほか、ヒエログリフ、線文字Bなど、数多くの難解な古代文字や表記が、暗号解読者たちの血のにじむ解析努力と併せて詳述されている。

   本書では、読者がこれらの暗号を実際に作ったり、解読したりしながら読み進めていくことができるよう工夫されている。パズルや謎解きが好きな読者はもちろん、歴史の裏側をのぞいてみたい読者や考古学ファンにとっても興味深い1冊である。（土井英司）

暗号解読 ロゼッタストーンから量子暗号まで
暗号技術は解読技術とのせめぎ合いを通じて高度に発展してきた。その歴史的経緯と未来の動向をひも解く読み物。カエサル暗号，ヴィジュネル暗号，暗号機械エニグマ，公開カギ暗号，量子暗号などを追う。

(日経インターネットテクノロジー 2001/09/01 Copyright©2001 日経BP企画..All rights reserved.)

Codes have decided the fates of empires, countries, and monarchies throughout recorded history. Mary, Queen of Scots was put to death by her cousin, Queen Elizabeth, for the high crime of treason after spymaster Sir Francis Walsingham cracked the secret code she used to communicate with her conspirators. And thus the course of British history was altered by a few sheets of cryptic prose. This is just one link in humankind's evolutionary chain of secret communication, and just one of the fascinating incidents recounted in The Code Book, written by bestselling author Simon Singh.

Combining a superb storyteller's sense of drama and a scientist's appreciation for technical perfection, Singh traces the evolution of secret writing from ancient Greek military espionage to the frontiers of computer science. The result is an epic tale of human ingenuity, with examples that range from the poignant to the peculiar to the world-historical.

There is the case of the Beale ciphers, which involves Wild West escapades, a cowboy who amassed a vast fortune, a buried treasure worth $20 million, and a mysterious set of encrypted papers describing its whereabouts--papers that have baffled generations of cryptanalysts and captivated hundreds of treasure hunters.

A speedier end to a bloody war was the only reward that could be promised to the Allied code breakers of World Wars I and II, whose selfless contributions altered the course of history; but few of them lived to receive any credit for their top-secret accomplishments. Among the most moving of these stories is that of the World War II British code breaker Alan Turing, who gave up a brilliant career in mathematics to devote himself to the Allied cause, only to end his years punished by the state for his homosexuality, while his heroism was ignored. No less heroic were the Navajo code talkers, who volunteered without hesitation to risk their lives for the Allied forces in the Japanese theater, where they were routinely mistaken for the enemy.

Interspersed with these gripping stories are clear mathematical, linguistic, and technological demonstrations of codes, as well as illustrations of the remarkable personalities--many courageous, some villainous, and all obsessive--who wrote and broke them.

All roads lead to the present day, in which the possibility of a truly unbreakable code looms large. Singh explores this possibility, and the ramifications of our increasing need for privacy, even as it begins to chafe against the stated mission of the powerful and deeply secretive National Security Agency. Entertaining, compelling, and remarkably far-reaching, this is a book that will forever alter your view of history, what drives it, and how private that e-mail you just sent really is.

Included in the book is a worldwide Cipher Challenge--a $15,000 award will be given by the author to the first reader who cracks the code successfully. Progress toward the solution will be tracked on The Code Book website. --このテキストは、絶版本またはこのタイトルには設定されていない版型に関連付けられています。

最先端領域に宿る天才たちの壮絶なドラマ。歴史の背後に秘められた、暗号作成者と解読者の攻防―加速する情報戦争の勝者はいったい誰か?『フェルマーの最終定理』に続く世界的ベストセラー、待望の完全翻訳版。

ネット・セキュリティ、Uボート、英女王暗殺計画…。歴史の裏面を彩る、暗号をめぐる壮絶なドラマの数々。加速する情報戦争の勝者はいったい誰か? 最先端領域に宿る、天才たちの壮絶なドラマ。

People love secrets, and ever since the first word was written, humans have written coded messages to each other. In The Code Book, Simon Singh, author of the bestselling Fermat's Enigma, offers a peek into the world of cryptography and codes, from ancient texts through computer encryption. Singh's compelling history is woven through with stories of how codes and ciphers have played a vital role in warfare, politics, and royal intrigue. The major theme of The Code Book is what Singh calls "the ongoing evolutionary battle between codemakers and codebreakers," never more clear than in the chapters devoted to World War II. Cryptography came of age during that conflict, as secret communications became critical to either side's success.

Confronted with the prospect of defeat, the Allied cryptanalysts had worked night and day to penetrate German ciphers. It would appear that fear was the main driving force, and that adversity is one of the foundations of successful codebreaking.

In the information age, the fear that drives cryptographic improvements is both capitalistic and libertarian--corporations need encryption to ensure that their secrets don't fall into the hands of competitors and regulators, and ordinary people need encryption to keep their everyday communications private in a free society. Similarly, the battles for greater decryption power come from said competitors and governments wary of insurrection. The Code Book is an excellent primer for those wishing to understand how the human need for privacy has manifested itself through cryptography. Singh's accessible style and clear explanations of complex algorithms cut through the arcane mathematical details without oversimplifying. Can't get enough crypto? Try solving the Cipher Challenge in the back of the book--$15,000 goes to the first person to crack the code! --Therese Littleton
--このテキストは、絶版本またはこのタイトルには設定されていない版型に関連付けられています。

In an enthralling tour de force of popular explication, Singh, author of the bestselling Fermat's Enigma, explores the impact of cryptographyAthe creation and cracking of coded messagesAon history and society. Some of his examples are familiar, notably the Allies' decryption of the Nazis' Enigma machine during WWII; less well-known is the crucial role of Queen Elizabeth's code breakers in deciphering Mary, Queen of Scots' incriminating missives to her fellow conspirators plotting to assassinate Elizabeth, which led to Mary's beheading in 1587. Singh celebrates a group of unsung heroes of WWII, the Navajo "code talkers," Native American Marine radio operators who, using a coded version of their native language, played a vital role in defeating the Japanese in the Pacific. He also elucidates the intimate links between codes or ciphers and the development of the telegraph, radio, computers and the Internet. As he ranges from Julius Caesar's secret military writing to coded diplomatic messages in feuding Renaissance Italy city-states, from the decipherment of the Rosetta Stone to the ingenuity of modern security experts battling cyber-criminals and cyber-terrorists, Singh clarifies the techniques and tricks of code makers and code breakers alike. He lightens the sometimes technical load with photos, political cartoons, charts, code grids and reproductions of historic documents. He closes with a fascinating look at cryptanalysts' planned and futuristic tools, including the "one-time pad," a seemingly unbreakable form of encryption. In Singh's expert hands, cryptography decodes as an awe-inspiring and mind-expanding story of scientific breakthrough and high drama. Agent, Patrick Walsh. (Oct.) FYI: The book includes a "Cipher Challenge," offering a $15,000 reward to the first person to crack that code.
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc. --このテキストは、絶版本またはこのタイトルには設定されていない版型に関連付けられています。

Codes have decided the fates of empires, countries, and
monarchies throughout recorded history. Mary, Queen of Scots was put
to death by her cousin, Queen Elizabeth, for the high crime of treason
after spymaster Sir Francis Walsingham cracked the secret code she
used to communicate with her conspirators. And thus the course of
British history was altered by a few sheets of cryptic prose. This is
just one link in humankind's evolutionary chain of secret
communication, and just one of the fascinating incidents recounted in
The Code Book, written by bestselling author Simon Singh.

Combining a superb storyteller's sense of drama and a scientist's
appreciation for technical perfection, Singh traces the evolution of
secret writing from ancient Greek military espionage to the frontiers
of computer science. The result is an epic tale of human ingenuity,
with examples that range from the poignant to the peculiar to the
world-historical.

There is the case of the Beale ciphers, which involves Wild West
escapades, a cowboy who amassed a vast fortune, a buried treasure
worth $20 million, and a mysterious set of encrypted papers describing
its whereabouts--papers that have baffled generations of cryptanalysts
and captivated hundreds of treasure hunters.

A speedier end to a bloody war was the only reward that could be
promised to the Allied code breakers of World Wars I and II, whose
selfless contributions altered the course of history; but few of them
lived to receive any credit for their top-secret
accomplishments. Among the most moving of these stories is that of the
World War II British code breaker Alan Turing, who gave up a brilliant
career in mathematics to devote himself to the Allied cause, only to
end his years punished by the state for his homosexuality, while his
heroism was ignored. No less heroic were the Navajo code talkers, who
volunteered without hesitation to risk their lives for the Allied
forces in the Japanese theater, where they were routinely mistaken for
the enemy.

Interspersed with these gripping stories are clear mathematical,
linguistic, and technological demonstrations of codes, as well as
illustrations of the remarkable personalities--many courageous, some
villainous, and all obsessive--who wrote and broke them.

All roads lead to the present day, in which the possibility of a truly
unbreakable code looms large. Singh explores this possibility, and the
ramifications of our increasing need for privacy, even as it begins to
chafe against the stated mission of the powerful and deeply secretive
National Security Agency. Entertaining, compelling, and remarkably
far-reaching, this is a book that will forever alter your view of
history, what drives it, and how private that e-mail you just sent
really is.

Included in the book is a worldwide Cipher Challenge--a $15,000 award
will be given by the author to the first reader who cracks the code
successfully. Progress toward the solution will be tracked on The
Code Book website.
--このテキストは、絶版本またはこのタイトルには設定されていない版型に関連付けられています。

わからないものがわかるようになる 『フェルマーの最終定理』でもそう思わされましたが、このサイモン・シンという書き手、ただものではありません。最終的には現在の暗号の最先端領域にまで踏み込んでいくのですが（量子コンピュータだとか量子暗号だとか）、青木薫さんの名訳のおかげもあって（ほんとに読みやすく訳してくださってます）、本来かなり難しい内容のはずなのに、読む側にはまったくストレスを感じさせません。それどころか、読み終わるとなんだか頭が良くなったような気にさえさせるのです。こんな才能を持ったサイエンス・ライターは、ほんとにまれだと思います。ワクワクさせてくれて、しかも科学の最先端に触れさせてくれる――僕などは、一ファンとして、次作が待ち遠しくてなりません。是非ご一読を！

Praise for Fermat's Enigma by Simon Singh:
"Vividly recounted...I strongly recommend this book to anyone wishing
to catch a glimpse of what is one of the most important and
ill-understood, but oldest, cultural activities of humanity...an
excellent and very worthwhile account of one of the most dramatic and
moving events of the century."
--Roger Penrose, The New York Times Book Review

"How great a riddle was Fermat's 'last theorem'? The exploration of
space, the splitting of the atom, the discovery of DNA--unthinkable in
Fermat's time--all were achieved while his Pythagorean proof still
remained elusive...Though [Singh] may not ask us to bring too much
algebra to the table, he does expect us to appreciate a good detective
story."
--The Boston Sunday Globe

"It is hard to imagine a more informative or gripping account
of...this centuries-long drama of ingenious failures, crushed hopes,
fatal duels, and suicides." --The Wall Street Journal

"[Singh] writes with graceful knowledgeability of the esoteric and
esthetic appeal of mathematics through the ages, and especially of the
mystifying behavior of numbers." --The New York Times

"[Singh] has done an admirable job with an extremely difficult
subject. He has also done mathematics a great service by conveying the
passion and drama that have carried Fermat's Last Theorem aloft as the
most celebrated mathematics problem of the last four centuries."
--American Mathematical Society

"The amazing achievement of Singh's book is that it actually makes the
logic of the modern proof understandable to the nonspecialist...More
important, Singh shows why it is significant that this problem should
have been solved." --The Christian Science Monitor
--このテキストは、絶版本またはこのタイトルには設定されていない版型に関連付けられています。

Simon Singh received his Ph.D. in physics from the University of Cambridge. A former BBC producer, he directed an award-winning documentary film on Fermat's Last Theorem that aired on PBS's "Nova" series, and wrote the bestselling book Fermat's Enigma. He lives in London, England. --このテキストは、絶版本またはこのタイトルには設定されていない版型に関連付けられています。

シン,サイモン
1967年、イングランド南西部サマーセット州生まれ。祖父母はインドからの移民。ケンブリッジ大学大学院で素粒子物理学の博士号を取得。ジュネーブの研究センターに勤務後、テレビ局BBCに転職。96年、ドキュメンタリー『フェルマーの最終定理―ホライズン・シリーズ』で国内外の賞を数多く受賞

青木 薫
1956年、山形県生まれ。京都大学理学部卒業、同大学院修了。理学博士。翻訳家(本データはこの書籍が刊行された当時に掲載されていたものです)