Hacking Secret Ciphers with Python: A beginner's guide to cryptography and computer programming with Python

* * * This is the old edition! The new edition is under the title "Cracking Codes with Python" by Al Sweigart * * *Hacking Secret Ciphers with Python not only teaches you how to write in secret ciphers with paper and pencil. This book teaches you how to write your own cipher programs and also the hacking programs that can break the encrypted messages from these ciphers. Unfortunately, the programs in this book won’t get the reader in trouble with the law (or rather, fortunately) but it is a guide on the basics of both cryptography and the Python programming language. Instead of presenting a dull laundry list of concepts, this book provides the source code to several fun programming projects for adults and young adults.

Albert Sweigart (but you can call him Al), is a software developer in San Francisco, California. He is originally from Houston, Texas. He laughs out loud when watching park squirrels, which makes people think he's a simpleton. His previous books are "Invent Your Own Computer Games with Python" and "Making Games with Python & Pygame".