http://www.wired.com/news/politics/0,1283,41071,00.html Crypto: Three Decades in Review by Declan McCullagh (declan@wired.com) 8:20 a.m. Jan. 9, 2001 PST WASHINGTON --It took only a year or two for a pair of computer and math geeks to discover modern encryption technology in the 1970s. But it's taken three decades for the full story to be told. Transforming what is an unavoidably nerdy tale into the stuff of passion and politics is not a trivial business, but Steven Levy, the author of Crypto, proves himself more than up to the task. Crypto (Viking Penguin, $25.95), is Levy's compelling history of the personalities behind the development of data encryption, privacy and authentication: The mathematicians who thought up the idea, the businessmen who tried to sell it to an unsure public and the bureaucrats who tried to control it. Levy, a Newsweek writer and author of well-received technology histories such as Hackers and Insanely Great, begins his book in 1969 with a profile of Whit Diffie, the tortured, quirky co-discoverer of public key cryptography. Other characters soon populate the stage: The MIT mathematicians eager to sign documents digitally; Jim Bidzos, the Greek-born dealmaker who led RSA Data Security from ruin to success; and Phil Zimmermann, the peace-activist-turned-programmer who gave the world Pretty Good Privacy. Until their contributions, the United States and other countries suffered from a virtual crypto-embargo, under which the technology to perform secure communications was carefully regulated as a munition and used primarily by soldiers and spies. But what about privacy and security? "On one side of the battle were relative nobodies: computer hackers, academics and wonky civil libertarians. On the other were some of the most powerful people in the world: spies, generals and even presidents. Guess who won," Levy writes. (Full disclosure: A few years ago, Levy asked this writer to help him research portions of the book. For whatever reason -- perhaps he found what he needed elsewhere -- discussions ceased.) Throughout Crypto's 356 pages, Levy takes the perspective of the outsiders -- and, in some cases, rebels -- who popularized the technology. Although he provides ample space for the U.S. government's views, he casts the struggle between crypto-buffs and their federal adversaries in terms familiar to foes of government control. [...]