Review of Steven Levy's "Crypto"

Declan McCullagh declan at well.com
Tue Jan 9 08:41:06 PST 2001




http://www.wired.com/news/politics/0,1283,41071,00.html

    Crypto: Three Decades in Review
    by Declan McCullagh (declan at 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.

    [...]





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