AJ Kerrigan reviewed The Woman Who Smashed Codes by Jason Fagone
Review of 'The Woman Who Smashed Codes' on 'Goodreads'
5 stars
I had never heard of Elizebeth Friedman before reading this book, and that's a shame! I ended up finding her personal history just as engaging as the technical sections. Reading history books is not exactly my idea of a good time, and that goes double for war history. Following Elizebeth's life and career through times of peace and war was fascinating though! The author did a great job conveying the mutual respect and camaraderie Elizebeth had with her husband and codebreaking teams.
Unsurprisingly, many of the ideas in this book are as applicable today as they were in Elizebeth's pencil & paper world:
On the security of cryptographic systems -
The strength of a cryptographic system usually has less to do with its design than with the way people tend to use it. Humans are the weak link.
On the importance of open science reproducibility -
&
Then they wrote …
I had never heard of Elizebeth Friedman before reading this book, and that's a shame! I ended up finding her personal history just as engaging as the technical sections. Reading history books is not exactly my idea of a good time, and that goes double for war history. Following Elizebeth's life and career through times of peace and war was fascinating though! The author did a great job conveying the mutual respect and camaraderie Elizebeth had with her husband and codebreaking teams.
Unsurprisingly, many of the ideas in this book are as applicable today as they were in Elizebeth's pencil & paper world:
On the security of cryptographic systems -
The strength of a cryptographic system usually has less to do with its design than with the way people tend to use it. Humans are the weak link.
On the importance of open science & reproducibility -
Then they wrote the scientific papers, the Riverbank Publications, documenting exactly how they did it, and how other people could do it, too, if they followed the same steps.
I found this book so interesting that I want to dig into some follow-up material such as these gems available courtesy of the George C. Marshall Foundation:
The Friedman Collection: An Analytical Guide
American Black Chamber - Annotated Edition
Elizebeth Smith Friedman Collection
William F. Friedman Collection
