"Many papers die before their authors die. Nevertheless, some papers
will be read and referred until they become part of our life. In that
context they live forever." hence write Jiejun Kong, a researcher at
UCLA. Kong was referring to the father of modern
communication/crypotography, C.E.Shannon's work "Communication Theory
of Secrecy System" which appeared first in Bell System Technical
Journal in 1949. This single peice of work is is generally credited
with transforming cryptography from an art to a science.This, in
addition to his other works on information and communication theory
established a solid theoretical basis for cryptography and for
cryptanalysis.
Click here for a re-typesetted verion of this seminal work.