Making and breaking code in the world of encryption

Journalist Steven Levy was surprised when the National Security Agency requested an advance copy of his new book on code-making and -breaking. He was sure the NSA, the nation's premier spy agency, already had a copy. Levy visited Philadelphia yesterday to speak about his latest book, Crypto: How the Code Rebels Beat the Government -- Saving Privacy in the Digital Age, as well as on encryption in general. He spoke to an audience of about 40 people at the Friends Select School, marking the last stop on his national book tour. The book explores the battle between the NSA and the "cypherpunks" -- people who favor universal access to encryption to prevent governments from spying on citizens -- who broke the NSA's monopoly on strong encryption. For instance, Levy said after his talk that although the cypherpunks are very knowledgeable about encryption, few cross over to work for the NSA. "The cypherpunks are very politically motivated," he said. "You wouldn't see many of them go over." Also present was a camera crew from cable news channel C-SPAN, which was filming Levy for a program called Book TV. According to Robert Cotter, the FSS's director of institutional advancement, C-SPAN has also covered four prior book-related events at the school. During the talk, Levy read a brief excerpt from his book and spoke about cryptography, the people involved in developing new codes, and the government's policies toward encryption. As an example of government action concerning encryption, he cited an alleged attempt by the NSA to prevent the publication of David Chaum's 1967 book The Codebreakers. Levy said, however, that the NSA is now more willing to allow encryption information to reach the public, even publishing children's coloring books containing information about cryptography. Levy also addressed the impact of the advanced mathematics of cryptography on ordinary citizens. He noted that as medical, financial and personal information are increasingly digitized, they are vulnerable to exposure. Levy became interested in technology issues while writing about hackers for Rolling Stone magazine in 1981. "They just blew me away," Levy said. "I was fascinated by these people and fascinated by their world. I wanted to write more and more about it." Levy maintains contact with the cypherpunk community, which has moved on to issues such as DVD encryption and other implementations, now that the perceived government threat to development and export of encryption. "It's sort of a different bunch," Levy said. "Some of the original guys aren't there anymore." A handful of University students made the trip to Center City to attend Levy's talk. "I thought his book was pretty interesting, so I thought I'd come and see what he had to say about it," said Penn alumnus Blake Mills, now a freelance computer consultant and Philadelphia resident.

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