Novel Recommendation: "Black Cipher"

[Tim May]

(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 at 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."