Crypto [Paperback]

Author Steven Levy, deservedly famous for his enlightening Hackers, tells the story of the cypherpunks, their foes, and their allies in Crypto; if the National Security Agency (NSA) had wanted to make sure that strong encryption would reach the masses, it couldn't have done much better than to tell the cranky geniuses of the world not to do it.

From the determined research of Whitfield Diffie and Marty Hellman, in the face of the NSA's decades-old security lock, to the commercial world's turn-of-the-century embrace of encrypted e-commerce, Levy finds drama and intellectual challenge everywhere he looks. Although he writes, "Behind every great cryptographer, it seems, there is a driving pathology", his respect for the mathematicians and programmers who spearheaded public key encryption as the solution to Information Age privacy invasion shines throughout. Even the governmental bad guys are presented more as hapless control fetishists who lack the prescience to see the inevitability of strong encryption as more than a conspiracy of evil.

Each cryptological advance that was made outside the confines of the NSA's Fort Meade complex was met with increasing legislative and judicial resistance. Levy's storytelling acumen tugs the reader along through mathematical and legal hassles that would stop most narratives in their tracks--his words make even the depressingly silly Clipper chip fiasco vibrant. Hardcore privacy nerds will value Crypto as a review of 30 years of wrangling; those readers with less familiarity with the subject will find it a terrific and well-documented launching pad for further research. From notables like Phil Zimmerman to obscure but important figures like James Ellis, Crypto dishes the dirt on folks who know how to keep a secret. --Rob Lightner

The author of the 1994 sleeper Hackers reveals how a group of men developed methods for encrypting digital transmissions for use in the private sector. As the digital age was dawning in the late 1970s, a major stumbling block to delivering information and conducting transactions via high-speed networks was the lack of security from outside parties who might wish to intercept the data (even though the National Security Agency had acres of computers dedicated to protecting government secrets and even more designed to decode other countries' messages). Widely available systems only began to emerge after a range of free thinkers, including such crypto legends as Whit Diffie and Marty Hellman, began to devote their considerable mind power to the issue. After a slow start, Levy's story steadily builds momentum as the crypto pioneers do battle with the NSA, look for ways to commercialize their discoveries and fight for the federal government's approval of the strongest encryption methods. The chief technology writer for Newsweek, Levy locates the heart of the matter in the struggle to balance the need for the most effective encryption possible with the government's need to decode messages that might endanger national securityAa struggle in which privacy, so far, has prevailed. Agent, Dominick Abel . (Jan. 8) Forecast: Levy's reputation grows with each book, and publicity that links this title to his bestselling Hackers will ensure strong sales. The title is backed by a six-city author tour and national radio satellite tour. The major promo campaign online, where Levy is minor royalty, may be most effective, but the book's biggest boost will come from the planned excerpt in Newsweek.
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

What happens to privacy when computer geeks and big business battle the government for free access to information? From the author of Hackers.
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

The government monopoly of sophisticated codes is no more, dissolved by the invention of "public key" cryptography, and Levy here recounts how a handful of mathematicians and computer scientists did it. Simon Singh succinctly described public key's principal creators and operating principles in The Code Book (1999). Levy emphasizes the story's business aspects and patent disputes among the inventors. In addition, he folds in incidents involving emissaries from the secret world of the National Security Agency, who subsequently helped to break the agency's lock on high-level codes. Profiling names now legendary in cryptography--such as Whit Diffie, Phil Zimmerman, or a trio whose acronymic RSA algorithm makes secure e-commerce possible--Levy lucidly limns their counterintuitive thinking about codes (especially the idea that keys, based on gigantic prime numbers, be exchanged in the open for all to see). Culminating with reportage on their efforts to commercialize and export public-key crypto, which the NSA successfully lobbied the Clinton administration to limit, Levy's history is a fascinating intersection of people, privacy, and power. Gilbert Taylor
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

...[a] lively and detailed narrative...anyone with a passing interest in internet privacy will find it fascinating. -- Business Week

...an elegant and enlightening tale of obsessed individuals and creative geniuses...great insight.... -- San Jose Mercury News, January 7, 2001

...the book is as fine and accurate a portrayal as you'll fine anywhere. And it's terrific read. -- Wired, January 2001

Crypto is a book that needed to be written and Steven Levy has written it. -- Neal Stephenson, author of Cryptonomicon

Crypto not only makes e-commerce possible, it's also the first political movement in the digital era...Read about the future here. -- Kevin Kelly, author of New Rules for the New Economy and Editor-at-Large, Wired Magazine

Levy puts a human face on...[this] gripping story of the struggle to develop cutting-edge encryption technology.... -- Dallas Morning News, March 15, 2001 --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

If you've ever made a secure purchase with your credit card over the Internet, then you have seen cryptography, or "crypto," in action. From Steven Levy-the author who made "hackers" a household word-comes this account of a revolution that is already affecting every citizen in the twenty-first century. Crypto tells the inside story of how a group of "crypto rebels"-nerds and visionaries turned freedom fighters-teamed up with corporate interests to beat Big Brother and ensure our privacy on the Internet. Levy's history of one of the most controversial and important topics of the digital age reads like the best futuristic fiction.

"Gripping and illuminating." (The Wall Street Journal)

Steven Levy is Newsweek's chief technology writer and has been a contributing writer to Wired since its inception.