In his book Crypto, Steven Levy effectively elicits sympathy and
pathos for the academics and entrepreneurs of the mathematical and
digital world in his nonfiction piece that reads a little like historical
fiction. Throughout the book Levy juxtaposes the brilliant, free spirited
and intellectual minds that were on the forefront of the 20th century
digital age with oppressive government agencies demanding control
and secrecy. “The former were nobodies . . . The latter were the most
powerful people in the world . . . Guess who won” (pg 2). Previewing the
cover and reviews, one suspects a tale filled with the science of the day
mixed with espionage.
“How the code rebels beat the government - saving privacy in the digital
age”
“Gripping and Illuminating.” – The Wall Street Journal
“An elegant and enlightening tale of obsessed individuals and creative
geniuses.” – San Jose Mercury News
In 2012 it is all hindsight, so as the story progresses we await the
other shoe we all know will fall. And it does, but not without outrage
and concern generated by Levy for real life characters such as Whitfield
Diffie. Levy portrays Diffie as a brilliant and eccentric child who grows
up a counter cultural traveler on an inexorable path toward his calling.
This eventually leads him to other brilliant scientists, Marty Hellman,
and mathematicians, Rivest, Shamir and Adleman (RSA), who
concurrently create cryptology. Levy appeals to the reader’s emotions
through anecdotes of these men who create for pure science,
mathematics and the love of theory, while the government attempts to
block them from their intellectual properties. He uses words like Big
Snoop synonymously with the National Security Agency (NSA). Levy
relates how Whit Diffie weeps to his wife Mary Fischer that he will
never make anything of himself – “that he was a broken down old
researcher”(pg. 67). She assures him of his greatness. Once Diffie and
Hellman do break the monopoly of government cryptology, Levy uses
the emotionally charged conclusion, ”That monopoly had just been
smashed open by a long-haired former MIT hacker, and his passionate
Stanford graduate school advisor”(pg. 89). Oddly enough, Diffie could
not hold his position in a graduate program, so this wasn’t exactly
accurate, but it was the common man against THE MAN.
Cryptology was born of a need for individuals to communicate with
privacy. The reader is led to champion the cause. It was needed.
Technologies of the day such as telecommunications, banking and
growing computer communications presented challenges regarding
individual privacy. The government had blocked the private sector’s
need for encryption under the guise of national security. Diffie had built
upon the algorithmic shoulders of code giants who went before. The list
of mathematicians and scientists increased and finally tipped the scales
of the computer - age encryption process away from government
secrecy. The private sector’s need for encryption in software and the
computer world increased, and millions of dollars in revenue waited for
the companies who could break the government restrictions. The
government was stifling creativity and progress as related by Steven
Levy.