(A copy of this message has also been posted to the following newsgroups: sci.crypt, alt.cypherpunks) I just read a fine novel, a "crypto-thriller," called "Black Cipher." Payne Harrison, 1994. It was being remaindered at SuperCrown in hardback for $4.99. I assume it may be out in paperback by now. It's about a British-Pakistani cryptanalyst named Faisal Shaikh, the top cryptanalyst at GCHQ, Cheltenham. He stumbles across a cipher he's never seen before, using 7 letter code groups, and sets out to crack it. The portrait of how he works, how he applies math and tricks ("cribs") to make the cipher more amenable to computer analysis is wonderful. (Little mention of public key cryptosystems, save for a piece of local color where Shaikh is starting to read a new paper by Shor and Rivest! The author clearly did his homework.) The novel paints vivid pictures of GCHQ, and of the politics within GCHQ and NSA, making it a wonderful complement to Bamford's drier "Puzzle Palace." (It's apparent that Harrison has read PP, and much more, and probably talked to several current or past GCHQ and NSA folks.) Never having been to Cheltenham, I had no real feel for it...now I feel I've been there. Dramatic, too, with interesting twists. Touches of financial thriller, war thriller, and exotic locales (including a trip to Alice Springs, a single engine aircraft ride to Ascencion Island in the remote Atlantic, and even a look inside the KGB equivalent of the NSA. Several weeks ago I recommended Joseph Finder's "The Zero Hour," which also had some crypto in it. This is even better, both as a novel and in terms of the amount of crypto and cryptanalysis portrayed. (Public key cryptosystems play no significant role, and the novel repeats the common oversight of ignoring the fact that ordinary computer networks are perfectly fine for sending small messages with almost no chance of either detection or decryption. A radio signal plays a key role in the novel, a signal that could have been sent any number of ways, including by posting in conventional code (codebook) form in any Usenet newsgroup! But don't let this small oversight, which may have been for dramatic reasons, stop you from reading this novel.) The portrait of the mathematician Faisal Shaikh is compelling. Highly recommended. --Tim May -- There's something wrong when I'm a felon under an increasing number of laws. ---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---- Timothy C. May | Crypto Anarchy: encryption, digital money, tcmay@got.net 408-728-0152 | anonymous networks, digital pseudonyms, zero W.A.S.T.E.: Corralitos, CA | knowledge, reputations, information markets, Higher Power: 2^1398269 | black markets, collapse of governments. "National borders aren't even speed bumps on the information superhighway."