Crypto: How the Code Rebels Beat the Government--Saving Privacy in the Digital Age

Amazon.com's Best of 2001

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. Author Steven Levy, deservedly famous for his enlightening Hackers, tells the story of the cypherpunks, their foes, and their allies in Crypto: How the Code Rebels Beat the Government. 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

Book Description

From the author who made "hackers" a household word, a groundbreaking book about the most hotly debated subject of the digital age.

Crypto is about privacy in the information age and about the nerds and visionaries who, nearly twenty years ago, predicted that the Internet's greatest virtue-free access to information-was also its most perilous drawback: a possible end to privacy.

Levy explores what turned out to be a decisive development in the crypto wars: the unlikely alliance between the computer geeks and big business as they fought the government's stranglehold on the keys to information in a networked world.

The players come alive here in a narrative that reads like the best of futuristic spy fiction. There is Whit Diffie, the long-haired Newton of crypto who invented the astounding "public key"solution; David Chaum, whose "anony-mous digital money"actually threatened the global financial infrastructure; and "cypherpunks"like Phil Zimmermann, who freely distributed military-strength codes under the nose of the U. S. government. There is also the first behind-the-scenes account of what the secretive National Security Agency really had in mind when it created the controversial "clipper chip"-and how the Clinton administration bungled the operation.

Cryptography-the use of secret codes-has traditionally been the province of puzzle geeks and government spies. But just in time for the Internet-which radically alters the way we share information-a band of outsiders triggered a revolution in this once-cloistered field. But this was a revolution that the government wanted to kill....

Customer Reviews:

my question answered.......2007-03-20

The computer age is truly here. Our money, identity and privacy are truly exposed. Having heard about the National Security Agency's battle to prevent the public use of secure cryptography, I really wanted to know if I could trust our government to let me have secure privacy.
History is an excellent teacher. You just have to get the facts and judge for yourself. This book does just that. It tells it's story in an unbiased manner, truly believable and logical.
I have found my answer. Read it and find yours.

Crypto for the Common Man - A Great Intro.......2006-10-26

Beside Hackers, Crypto is arguably Steven Levy's strongest work. Like Hackers, Levy captures an intimate sense of detail about the characters who fought to bring strong cryptography to the public. Yet, at the same time, he manages to put together a more coherent, linear history than he achieved with Hackers.

In the end, I failed to sense the tension that Levy claims - certainly this was a David vs. Goliath fight, against such formidable and shadowy opponents as the NSA, however he never really establishes a sense of "Oh, Jeez! What if they stop the crypto heroes?" I never really felt like the outcome was in question - but again, that's light criticism when weighed against the strength of the book.

Crypto does a great job conveying a very technically difficult subject - cryptography - which is, of course, one of the skills that cements Levy among the best popular technology writers of our generation. Strongly recommended for anyone interested in technology in general - and, although probably a little technically light for those closer to the subject, it remains a great way to get closer to the people that made it happen.

Some parts Interesting, some parts boring.......2006-07-30

Now days, communications are more secure than ever thanks to the pubic key crytographic system and the work of those people involve in this story. As you will see, the more bits a key has, most difficult is to break the code, since to factorize a big prime number is almost impossible. Well, that is what we currently know. Although in this book you have this history, I think the author put too much detail in things we are just going to forget soon, making the book a little boring.

EXCELLENT and MOVING book about cryptography stars.......2005-08-12

This author made a boring subject come alive! In addition, the writing actually made some the people interesting who focused mostly or solely on cryptography...ordinarily I would ignore single focus persons. But this book talked about their successes in a succint way that interested me.

This is a GREAT author. I read his book about the Macintosh and that is why I purchased this book. I am adding AES encryption to a Windows CE device...so cryptography interests me. I also purchased Hackers and will read it later.

Well-researched account.......2005-05-24

Light-hearted by nature, Steven Levy gives everything the proper treatment in an often amusing way without being irreverent, and he becomes serious where warranted.

This book presents a balanced perspective from both sides: privacy advocates who do not necessarily trust the government, and government authorities terrified of losing their precious wiretaps and other snooping capabilities. The actions of a few self-righteous, overzealous mavericks on both sides are recounted.

Examples of successful U.S. government eavesdropping are mentioned; for instance, it was monitoring that revealed that the Libyans were the bombers of Pan Am flight 103. There is example after example of how the antiquated, rigid NSA position that "crypto is munitions" stifled the ascendant American software industry in the 1990's by restricting exports, giving foreign competitors the edge, while the rest of the world already had strong crypto anyway! Asinine inconsistencies in the old export restrictions are cited. The players of the NSA, NIST, and Congress are named and events, from assembly bills to telling conversations, are recounted. I think most crypto enthusiasts will find this recap informative. It certainly filled in a lot of gaps for me!

The book does not pretend to be a primer on cryptography. Levy does his usual admirable job of reaching out to the masses with lay explanations and clever analogies, but this being specialized math, it will at times go over the heads of some readers. Levy has a good sense of how far to take a technical explanation before dropping it; he doesn't go around the bend. Historical cryptographic systems recounted in David Kahn's tome "The Codebreakers" are now passe, not just because computers do it faster, but also due to relatively recent mathematical discoveries. The chronology of those discoveries is told along with the human stories behind them --of those who yearned to understand the art of secret writing and came to realize that it boils down to hard adversarial mathematics.

The human story throughout is one of unassuming, unlikely geniuses whose discoveries got no immediate fanfare, rather taking decades to catch on. Today (ironically now that the patents have expired) those discoveries are in use every day by most people using the Internet, a cellular phone, or any other wireless device.

The book is at times dull. To me, the accounts of legislative machinations were slow-going but I don't see how they could be made more interesting.

Jim Bidzos is finally vindicated as a real hero of the crypto revolution (after being portrayed in a bad light in a book on PGP). Diffie/Hellman/Merkle, the Cypherpunks, anonymous remailers, Julf Helsingius and Penet, David Chaum and digital cash protocols, court decisions, the Clipper chip --it's all here.

Did government spooks discover public key crypto first, in secret? The book ends with the interesting and hitherto unknown story of James H. Ellis of the General Communications HQ, the British cousin of the NSA.

An index, a small glossary, and an appendix of references are included. Well done!

Digital Crossroads: American Telecommunications Policy in the Internet Age

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Good
Telecommunications for non-specialists
That rare combination: comprehensive and accessible
Telecom Law for the Layman, Clearly Explained

Digital Crossroads: American Telecommunications Policy in the Internet Age
Jonathan E. Nuechterlein , and Philip J. Weiser
Manufacturer: The MIT Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 026264066X

Book Description

With a new preface for the paperback edition

Telecommunications policy profoundly affects the economy and our everyday lives. Yet accounts of important telecommunications issues tend to be either superficial (and inaccurate) or mired in jargon and technical esoterica. In Digital Crossroads, Jonathan Nuechterlein and Philip Weiser offer a clear, balanced, and accessible analysis of competition policy issues in the telecommunications industry. After giving a big picture overview of the field, they present sharply reasoned analyses of the major technological, economic, and legal developments confronting communications policymakers in the twenty-first century.

Since the passage of the Telecommunications Act of 1996, when Congress fundamentally reoriented the existing regulatory scheme, no book has cogently explained the intricacies of telecommunications competition policy in the Internet age for general readers, students, and practitioners alike. Digital Crossroads meets this need, focusing on the regulatory dimensions of competition in wireline and wireless telephone service; competition among rival platforms for broadband Internet service and video distribution; and the Internet's transformation of every aspect of the telecommunications industry, particularly through the emergence of "voice over Internet protocol" (VoIP). The authors explain not just the complicated legal issues governing the industry, but also the rapidly changing technological and economic context in which these issues arise. The book includes extensive endnotes and tables that cover relevant court decisions, FCC orders, and academic commentaries; a glossary of acronyms; a statutory addendum containing the most important provisions of federal telecommunications law; and two appendixes with information on more specialized topics. Supplementary materials for students are available at http://spot.colorado.edu/~weiserpj.

Customer Reviews:

Good.......2006-03-03

I had to read this for a graduate class. It is written in a conversational manner. It does explain the topics in reasonable voice. Overall not a bad purchase. It is not something that I will keep but it is good for a library to have.

Telecommunications for non-specialists.......2005-08-30

In Digital Crossroads, the authors, both lawyers with experience in telecommunications, offer a readable guide to the complex regulatory policies shaping electronic communication. Starting with the economic principles that have guided government agencies through the twentieth century and into the twenty-first, they give a basic history of the development of wireline communication, primarily through telephone, and explain how the advent of wireless technology via radio, television, cell phones, and the Internet have affected policies and practices. Although it is not easy reading, both the technical and legal aspects of communication are made clear even to a reader who is neither a lawyer nor an engineer. The policies discussed in this book will affect every citizen who cares about obtaining and communicating information to individuals and groups. Understanding the background given here, will help individuals follow the current legislative news as Congress revises the 1996 Telecommunications Act. This is a book many community groups and activists should read and discuss.

That rare combination: comprehensive and accessible.......2005-05-23

Digital Crossroads is that rare combination, a comprehensive and accurate -- but well-written and accessible -- presentation of the state of the technology, economics, and law driving today's complex telecommunications industry. I used it in my Albany Law School seminar on Telecommunications Law for the 21st Century, and students found it highly accessible--especially the technology chapters. The book is a real accomplishment: comprehensive, thoughtful, and forward-looking, without being swept away by the latest gimmick off the shelf. It is also an extremely well written and organized book, clear and authoritative. In addition, for either the practitioner or academic, the inclusion of relevant sections of the 1996 Telecommunications Act adds value and convenience. Making coherent sense of this industry, its history and trajectory, is a daunting challenge and one the authors met, apparently without flinching.

Telecom Law for the Layman, Clearly Explained.......2005-03-26

If you need a current understanding of the law and politics around telecommunications today, this is THE book you need. While long, it is clearly written, concise, lucid, and technically excellent. Even with extensive experience in this domain, I found this book to be the most cogent and readable summary of the issues today, and I learned a lot in the process.

Jonathan Nuechterlein and Philip Weiser are practicing lawyers that have taken the time to learn enough of the engineering and technology of the telecommunications world to be able to explain the intersection of law, politics, and technology to anyone with an interest in the topic. Their goal with this book is to lay a foundation for revisions to US (and global) laws as they apply to voice, data, and video communications distribution networks. While they do not have the answers yet (no one does), they lucidly and often humorously explain why today's laws and regulations are increasingly obsolete. In the process, the authors describe how technology and software are interacting to force the government to abolish the regulatory divisions between the voice and video worlds.

Nuechterlein and Weiser outline a four layer model for communications policies of the future, dividing the domain into 1) the physical infrastructure layer, 2) a logical connectivity layer, 3) an applications layer delivering voice, video, and data services to end users, and 4) a content layer that addresses publicly visible content in any format. They illustrate how this model can be used to devise laws that can effectively achieve the goals of government, and, more importantly, how the model can demonstrate the weaknesses of existing and proposed laws and rules. As they do this, they outline the thinking from the best minds in this domain as to the direction that Congress and the FCC should take in the process of revising our laws on the Internet, traditional voice telephony, VoIP, satellite communications systems, cable TV and the broadcast TV industry.

For this reason and others, I highly recommend this to anyone needing to understand the current regulatory environment surrounding the Internet and telecommunications generally. You will not go wrong with this volume.

World War 3.0: Microsoft Vs. the U.S. Government, and the Battle to Rule the Digital Age

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A good journalist's overview of the Microsoft antitrust case

World War 3.0: Microsoft Vs. the U.S. Government, and the Battle to Rule the Digital Age
Ken Auletta
Manufacturer: Broadway
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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Book Description

The Internet Revolution, like all great industrial changes, has made the world's elephantine media companies tremble that their competitors-whether small and nimble mice or fellow elephants-will get to new terrain first and seize its commanding heights. In a climate in which fear and insecurity are considered healthy emotions, corporate violence becomes commonplace. In the blink of an eye-or the time it has taken slogans such as "The Internet changes everything" to go from hyperbole to banality-"creative destruction" has wracked the global economy on an epic scale.

No one has been more powerful or felt more fear or reacted more violently than Bill Gates and Microsoft. Afraid that any number of competitors might outflank them-whether Netscape or Sony or AOL Time Warner or Sun or AT&T or Linux-based companies that champion the open-source movement or some college student hacking in his dorm room-Microsoft has waged holy war on all foes, leveraging its imposing strengths.

In World War 3.0, Ken Auletta chronicles this fierce conflict from the vantage of its most important theater of operations: the devastating second front opened up against Bill Gates's empire by the United States government. The book's narrative spine is United States v. Microsoft, the government's massive civil suit against Microsoft for allegedly stifling competition and innovation on a broad scale. With his superb writerly gifts and extraordinary access to all the principal parties, Ken Auletta crafts this landmark confrontation into a tight, character- and incident-filled courtroom drama featuring the best legal minds of our time, including David Boies and Judge Richard Posner. And with the wisdom gleaned from covering the converging media, software, and communications industries for The New Yorker for the better part of a decade, Auletta uses this pivotal battle to shape a magisterial reckoning with the larger war and the agendas, personalities, and prospects of its many combatants.

Customer Reviews:

A good journalist's overview of the Microsoft antitrust case.......2002-08-30

This is a well written chronicle of the anti-trust battle waged between Microsoft and the Justice Department's Anti-trust division.

Auletta does a fine job of revealing the personalities of the major players on both sides of the aisle, especially Davied Bowies of Justice and Bill Gates. Gates, who, by common consent is seen as a brilliant is shown (also by common consent) as an emotionally immature individual who genuinely believes that what Microsoft is doing a good thing for everyone and seems to think that laws do not have the final say in matters over his company.

I came away with the feeling that if Microsoft had dealt with the allegations by co-operating with the Anti-trust division early on and with total honesty this may not have ever been a front page story. But the stubborness of Gate's personality, his inability to compromise almost guaranteed this would become a major newstory and legal case.

Product Description

media, policy, digital, age

The Tools of Government in the Digital Age: Second Edition (Public Policy and Politics)

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The Tools of Government in the Digital Age: Second Edition (Public Policy and Politics)
Christopher C. Hood , and Helen Z. Margetts
Manufacturer: Palgrave Macmillan
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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Bureaucracy in a Democratic State: A Governance Perspective

ASIN: 0230001440
Release Date: 2007-07-24

Book Description

This important new work updates the arguments of Christopher Hood's classic work The Tools of Government for the twenty-first century. Revised and updated throughout and drawing its examples from a wide range of places and contexts, it includes substantially increased coverage of how government gets information and an assessment of how the tools available to government have changed over time--especially with new developments in digital technologies.

Digital Diplomacy: U.S. Foreign Policy in the Information Age

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Digital Diplomacy: U.S. Foreign Policy in the Information Age
Wilson Dizard
Manufacturer: Praeger Paperback
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0275972283

Book Description

Digital Diplomacy provides a comprehensive overview of the major milestones in United States international communications and information policy, from the early days of the Morse telegraph to the current internet explosion. The book underlines the growing importance of the communications issues, particularly as they affect American leadership in a rapidly-changing information environment. Dizard, a former foreign service officer, rejects the idea of a computer-based "telediplomacy," arguing instead that the new technologies should be used primarily to strengthen the capabilities of American diplomats in dealling with information-age issues. A read for those interested in the future of United States foreign policy, and a stimulating overview for scholars, researchers, and students involved in the subject.

E-Government in Canada: Transformation for the Digital Age (Governance)

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E-Government in Canada: Transformation for the Digital Age (Governance)
Jeffrey Roy
Manufacturer: University of Ottawa Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0776606174

Book Description

E-Government in Canada seeks to answer the question: what are the prospects for Canada's public sector in an emerging era shaped by digital technologies, human and organizational connectivity, and institutional change? Jeff Roy examines e-government's main drivers, assesses the first decade of e-government in Canada, and discusses the major challenges and choices that lie ahead.

This study focuses on four separate yet inter-related aspects of e-government: service, security, transparency, and trust. Roy demonstrates that although service and security agendas are somewhat related to external events and the shifting public (and political) mood, the deployment of new digital technologies in these areas largely reflect changes to the organizational architecture of the public sector itself. An examination of issues related to transparency and trust, by comparison, denotes how e-government has evolved in a manner tied to perceptions, trends and expectations outside of the formal confines of government. More democratic than operational, the Internet has fuelled widening calls for a restructuring of democracy itself.

Censorship in Cyberspace: New Regulatory Strategies in the Digital Age on the Example of Freedom of Expression (Schriften Zur Governance-Forschung)

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Censorship in Cyberspace: New Regulatory Strategies in the Digital Age on the Example of Freedom of Expression (Schriften Zur Governance-Forschung)
Yulia Timofeeva
Manufacturer: Nomos Verlagsgesellschaft
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 3832921427

The Digital Citizen: Government and Regulation in the Information Age (International Library of Political Studies)

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The Digital Citizen: Government and Regulation in the Information Age (International Library of Political Studies)
Miriam Lips
Manufacturer: Tauris Academic Studies
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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Book Description

E-Government refers to the use by government agencies of information technologies (such as Wide Area Networks, the Internet, and mobile computing) that have the ability to transform relations with citizens, businesses, and other arms of government. In the digital age, policy makers, public managers, politicians, consultants and academics have acknowledged that e-government is crucial to bringing about necessary changes in systems of government. Using a consumer-oriented approach, whilst at the same time offering citizens access to public information and services through the Internet and other information and communication technologies (ICTs), the core idea of e-government is that governments should be more efficient and effective in their relationships with their consumers. This is not only the case for organisational design issues, but also in electronic relationships to citizens, like trust, privacy, identification and security. In this timely and important book, Miriam Lips presents us with the first empirical study on the citizen’s perspective of its Internet-facilitated relationships with governments and other public organisations. She explores the desires and needs over matters related to the governance and democratic design of e-government relationships both from the customer perspective but more powerfully, from a perspective of the "whole citizen."

Digital Gift to the Nation: Fulfilling the Promise of the Digital and Internet Age

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Digital Gift to the Nation: Fulfilling the Promise of the Digital and Internet Age
Lawrence K. Grossman , Newton N. Minow , and TCF
Manufacturer: Century Foundation Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0870784668

Book Description

As the United States enters the new century, technological advances have the power to transform commerce, the public sector, and how citizens interact. This volume, part of the multiyear Digital Promise project administered by The Century Foundation, examines emerging technologies including wireless telephony, electronic data transmission, and Internet communications and how they impact educational, cultural, and other nonprofit organizations. The book features a report prepared by Lawrence K. Grossman, former president of NBC News and PBS, and Newton Minow, former chairman of the FCC and PBS, two of the leading intellectuals on public telecommunications matters. They offer specific policy recommendations for securing and protecting the public's interest in the ongoing technology revolution. Specifically, Grossman and Minow suggest creating a "Digital Information Trust," modeled after the Morrill Land-Grant Colleges Acts of the nineteenth century. The trust fund would be financed by revenues from the federal government's sale or lease of electromagnetic spectrum and would be used to support the work of a range of educational and nonprofit groups.

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