Come listen to Fred Kinch tell stories from his new book, The Business of Secrets – stories about his adventures selling cryptographic equipment to the intelligence organizations of some 80 countries worldwide. These secret coding units kept messages confidential as they were sent from one place to another, for users such as the military or diplomatic corps. Fred encountered a spooky, shadow world, where potential customers (spies?) would appear when they wanted to see Fred and vanish when they did not. Some of the stories are humorous, some frightening, but all are entertaining. Stories like:

• Driving through war-torn Beirut in the middle of the night, passing through multiple military checkpoints where I could have been detained and possibly disappear forever.

• Arriving in Cairo at the height of the tourist season on an official visit to the Egyptian Army, only to find out that the officer in charge of getting us hotel rooms had done nothing, leaving us struggling not to sleep in the streets of Cairo.

• What to do when one of your units is cryptographically broken?

• And more…

The Business of Secrets picks up the story of cryptography after the era of the Enigma machine of WWII and brings it forward another 30 years. In a sense it is a sequel to the very popular book by Andrew Hodges and Douglas Hofstadter, Alan Turning: The Enigma, which inspired the movie: The Imitation Game.

Fred will have a cryptographic unit with him for the audience to examine, as well as pictures of a number of other cryptographic machines. Books will be available for purchase and Fred is happy to sign your copy.

Questions are encouraged. Come join a lively discussion.