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

[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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