By Whitfield Diffie - Privacy on the Line: The Politics of Wiretapping and Encryption (Updated and expanded Edition) (2007-04-14) [Hardcover]

by Whitfield Diffie~Susan Landau

There was a time when cryptography--the making and breaking of secret codes--was of interest only to spies, diplomats, and the occasional eccentric. Those days are over, and the reason, as Diffie and Landau explain, is that secret codes have become the key to preserving traditional notions of privacy at a time when technology is rapidly altering the nature of human communication. When the vast majority of conversations happened face to face, keeping them private was a simple matter of stepping away from the listening crowd. But the growing number of conversations that take place over easy-to-intercept phone lines and e-mail channels requires more sophisticated safeguards. Above all, it requires online encryption tools of the highest grade, and this book does a good job of explaining how these tools work, both in principle and in practice. It does a better job, though, of explaining why the tools matter. The intense political battles that have surrounded digital cryptography in recent years are a testament to the profound political implications of privacy in the online era, and Diffie and Landau have delivered an admirably thorough overview of both the struggles and the stakes. If at times their thoroughness bogs them down in dry recitations of detail, their book at least generates more light than heat, and that can hardly be said of most contributions to the cryptography debate so far. --Julian Dibbell

Genres: Nonfiction

Hardcover

First published January 1, 1998

Reviews

[David · Rating 4 out of 5]

Got very nice autographs in the front cover from both authors: "To a wannabe cryptographer, keep the faith, Enigmatically, Susan", and "From a once and future wannabee, Whit". :-)

[Nicholas · Rating 5 out of 5]

Simply put, if you want to know more about privacy issues and/or surveillance technologies, this book is a must-read. This author knows what she is talking about. This issues are becoming much more relevant, as the Supreme Court has taken up these issues and domestic law enforcement officials are increasingly relying on electronic surveillance.

[Michael Powe · Rating 3 out of 5]

Surprisingly well-written and certainly relevant to the modern state of electronic eavesdropping. Whitfield Diffie was co-creator of public key encryption, which is today critical to sensitive data storage around the world.

[Yvonne]

Interesting explanation of the tradeoffs between privacy and security - including debunking of conventional wisdom about the necessity of law enforcement tools such as wiretaps.