Crypto - Secrecy and Privacy in the New Code War

Cryptography, the use of codes and ciphers, is of huge importance today: codes are essential to the secure use of the internet, mobile phones and all kinds of electronic transactions (credit cards etc). Crypto traces the devlopment of the mathematical science of cryptography, and describes the conflicts that have developed between those who want to keep codes weak - basically government agencies, who want the option of peeking in - and those hackers outside government who want strong code available to all, to protect privacy. Afterall, if privacy is outlawed, only outlaws will have privacy.

Contents

• Ackonwledgments
• Preface
• The loner
• The standard
• Public key
• Prime time
• Selling crypto
• Patents and keys
• Crypto anarchy
• The clipper chip
• Slouching toward crypto
• Epilogue : the open secret
• Notes
• Bibliography
• Glossary
• Index