“Vātsyāyana’s famous textbook of erotics, the Kāma-sūtra, lists secret writing as one of the 64 arts, or yogas, that women should know and practice.” — David Kahn Copy Share Image
“From the early days of its existence, cryptology had served to obscure critical portions of writings dealing with the potent subject of magic—divinations, spells, curses, whatever conferred supernatural powers on its sorcerers. The first faint traces of this appeared in… — David Kahn Copy Share Image
“Hildegard von Bingen, an 11th-century nun who saw apocalyptic visions and was later canonized, had a cipher alphabet which she claimed came to her… — David Kahn Copy Share
“the most famous of all those who had an acquaintance with cryptology in the Middle Ages was an English customs official, amateur astronomer, and… — David Kahn Copy Share
“The task of the cryptanalysts consisted primarily of reconstructing the wiring and switches of the coding wheels—a task made more burdensome by the daily… — David Kahn Copy Share
“Analyzing the frequency and contacts of letters is the most universal, most basic of cryptanalytic procedures.” — David Kahn Copy Share
“General Joseph O. Mauborgne, who became Chief Signal Officer in October, 1937. Mauborgne had long been interested in cryptology. In 1914, as a young… — David Kahn Copy Share
“The only writer of the Middle Ages to describe cryptography instead of just using it was Roger Bacon, the English monk of startlingly modern… — David Kahn Copy Share
“Cryptology served magical purposes frequently throughout the Middle Ages, and even in the Renaissance was still disguising important parts of alchemical formulas.” — David Kahn Copy Share
“The technique was at least moderately well known, for Ibn Khaldūn wrote in The Muqaddimah: “Occasionally, skillful secretaries, though not the first to invent… — David Kahn Copy Share
“Cryptology was born among the Arabs. They were the first to discover and write down the methods of cryptanalysis. The people that exploded out… — David Kahn Copy Share
“Another steganographic system was still in use in the 20th century: Aeneas suggested pricking holes in a book or other document above or below… — David Kahn Copy Share
“Also of great importance in the discovery of linguistic phenomena that led to cryptanalysis was the development of lexicography.” — David Kahn Copy Share
“The world owes its first instructional text on communications security to the Greeks. It appeared as an entire chapter in one of the earliest… — David Kahn Copy Share
“His method resembles George Bernard Shaw’s way of using the /f/ sound of GH in “tough,” the /i/ sound of o in “women,” and… — David Kahn Copy Share
“Much of the history of cryptology of this time is a patchwork, a crazy quilt of unrelated items, sprouting, flourishing, withering. Only toward the… — David Kahn Copy Share
