IP: Steven Levy's "Crypto" book reviewed; NSA documentary

[Dave Farber <farber@cis.upenn.edu>]

>From: Declan McCullagh <declan@well.com>
>
>
>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.
>
>    [...]
>
>
>http://www.wired.com/news/politics/0,1283,41063,00.html
>
>    History Looks at the NSA
>    by Declan McCullagh (declan@wired.com)
>
>    2:00 a.m. Jan. 9, 2001 PST
>    WASHINGTON -- As anyone who watched Enemy of the State knows, the
>    National Security Agency is a rapacious beast with an appetite for
>    data surpassed only by its disregard for Americans' privacy.
>
>    Or is the opposite true, and the ex-No Such Agency staffed by ardent
>    civil libertarians?
>
>    To the NSA, of course, its devilish reputation is merely an
>    unfortunate Hollywood fiction. Its director, Lt. Gen. Michael Hayden,
>    has taken every opportunity to say so, most recently on a History
>    Channel documentary that aired for the first time Monday evening.
>
>    "It's absolutely critical that (Americans) don't fear the power that
>    we have," Hayden said on the show.
>
>    He dismissed concerns about eavesdropping over-eagerness and all but
>    said the NSA, far from being one of the most feared agencies, has
>    become one of the most handicapped.
>
>    One reason, long cited by agency officials: Encryption. The show's
>    producers obligingly included stock footage of Saddam Hussein, saying
>    that the dictator-for-life has been spotted chatting on a 900-channel
>    encrypted cell phone.
>
>    [...]
>
>
>
>
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