The history of code-breaking: a talk

The other talk I give is on the history of code-breaking. I have given it at Bletchley Park itself, which is as close as my trade gets to hallowed ground, and in cities from Las Vegas to Copenhagen. It is the story of how people have hidden messages and how other people have read them anyway, from the Romans to the Enigma machine to the encryption that protects your bank app, and of the people who did it: the ones you have heard of and several you have not.

It is a story, not a lecture. It runs about an hour, needs a screen, and suits a history society, a club, a school or anyone who liked the film and wants the rest. Like the scams talk, it is free to any venue within reach of the Moors; ask through the contact page.

Why it belongs next to the scams talk. Everything on the other pages here comes from the same place. The criminal ringing your neighbour is using the same tricks the codebreakers of 1940 used on the Germans: find the lazy habit, the repeated phrase, the person who trusts the system too much. Knowing the history makes the modern version easier to see.