[Spooks] cryptography and primes

[Martin Potter]

Dan Malloy wrote:
> Visit http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/spooks to unsubscribe from this list
> 
> Hello Spooks,
>   If you like numbers and cryptography, check out this page on prime numbers and how they make codes more difficult to crack.  I think 007 is a prime number. :-)
> http://www.claymath.org/posters/primes/
> 
> Dan Malloy
> ______________________________________________________________


Dan,

Thanks for the link and the references found there.  It will take me a 
while to digest it all!   :-)

For a fascinating inside look at the development of RSA (without a lot 
of math), interested spooks might like to read "Crypto" by Steven Levy, 
published 2001, and in paper back by Penguin in 2002, with index, 
glossary, bibliography, and end-notes.  ISBN 0 14 02.4432 8.  The 
subtitle of the book is "how the code rebels beat the government - 
saving privacy in the digital age", aptly worded.  Fun to read and very 
revealing.

Of a more general nature, mostly historical but still without the math, 
I recomment "The music of the Primes (searching to solve the greatest 
mystery in mathematics)" by Marcus du Sautoy, 2003 but 2004 in 
paperback.  ISBN 0-06-093558-8.  It's a wonderful look inside the world 
of mathematicians, a world that few ordinary folk realize even exists.

Happy reading!

... Martin    VE3OAT