Book Review: Cryptonomicon, Volume 46, Number 11

Of course, cryptography is necessary for a project such as the data haven, and, as the title would imply, discussions of codes and ciphers run throughout the book. Mathematicians with a background in cryptanalysis might be especially interested in a new output-feedback mode stream cipher formally introduced in this book for the first time. The code is described in greater detail in an appendix written by its creator, Bruce Sheier, the president of a computer security company. As Sheier explains, the code is based on the permutation group S54 and can be implemented using a standard deck of 52 playing cards with two distinguishable jokers. The code takes advantage of the fact that the number of standard cards is twice the number of letters in the English alphabet (a Cryptonomicon