Mr. Dan Brown seems to have a soft spot for the NSA and it’s Cryptographers. His last book I read, The Da Vinci Code also had the lead characters from the same department. Anyways the book is typical Dan Brown stuff. Amazingly fast, moves at neck-breaking speed, mystery, intrigue, interspersed with Murder, betrayal and lots of surprises. I loved it.
The book is about a NSA’s $2 billion code-breaking machine called TRANSLTR. This machine is capable of breaking the toughest of codes in a matter of minutes. The NSA uses this machine to intercept and decodes e-mails sent by any unsuspecting group to wreak havoc on the USA, and apprehend them and avert tragedy before it’s too late.
Any code can be broken using the brute-force algorithm. If a password is 5-digits long and all numeric, then one simply has to try all the numbers from 00000 to 99999. It is bound to be one of them. Now for longer codes, that can have upto a 1000 digit password all that one needs is a computer that is fast enough to go through all the possibilities. With 3 billion processors running in parallel the TRANSLTR was just that.
However, a disgruntled ex-employee of the NSA, has made claims that he has come up with a code that cannot be broken and using that he holds the NSA hostage. The lead character, Susan Fletcher, Head of Cryptography is one of the few people who knows that if this code gets out then the NSA would lose it’s control over the dons of the underworld and the thousands of averted tragedies would now give way to millions of people losing their lives.
I really wanna say more, so much more, but I hate long reviews and besides, I wouldn’t wanna ruin it for anyone :). I guess you’d like this book only if you’re a lil tech savvy. People who know nothing of computer and code and encryption, stay away from this book. But for people like me, it should be a good read.