Rating: 
Summary: Fantastic Read, Great Start For Crypto History
Review: I loved "Hackers" by Levy, so I decided to read this. Fortunately, Levy kept his writing style for this book. Mixing public history, interviews, government history, and personal comments, this book is an excellent history of cryptography for the people. It was fascinating reading the pressures coming from the government that the early inventors had to deal with. It was also amazing the amount of people involved with public key cryptography. From NSA directors, to professors, to even the vice president, it is quite astounding how many people influenced the direction of public key.The only problem I did have reading this was not necessarily anything with the book, but more of the timing of my reading. Throughout the book it is somewhat stressed that the government sheltered cryptography for national security. National security, which at the time of the writing, did not appear to be needed. But after September 11th, the concept of a terrorist using public key to hide his devious ideas does not seem ridiculous after all. While in the long run it was beneficial for cryptography to be public, it makes you wonder if events would have turned out differently if cryptography would have been kept secret. The most surprisingly part of the book is the end. I will not ruin it here, but the epilogue was the perfect conclusion to this book.
Rating:
Summary: A riveting read
Review: I throughly enjoyed this work. It tells the story of cryptography becoming a front and center issue in our society. The various people profiled in the book are all strange and unusal and you get a good flavor of their passion for the cause. Best part about this book is that it is accessible to non-techies.
Rating: 
Summary: Personalities of inventors, not description of technology
Review: I'm a computer engineering professional, and am currently reading everything I can on data security, encryption, securing messages between two points, etc. I am in the middle of reading 2 technical books on security protocols, and deployment of these protocols and procedures in an e-commerce environment. I got Mr. Levy's book, because I hoped it would help me understand the soft side of these technologies, the intention of them, and not just how to install them. I've read Hackers and Artificial Life, and enjoyed both these books. But, I found Crypto to be too involved in the personalities of the original inventors. Maybe that's the point of the book. But, I was hoping to get a solid understanding of what goes on in Cryptography and Security, as well as being introduced to the inventors. I was hoping for something like Gilder's 'Telecosm', which explains the technology as well as the people behind it. Crypto doesn't attempt to explain the technology, and that's where I'm left wanting.
Rating:
Summary: History of modern cryptography
Review: I've read Simon Singh's book on the history of cryptography, and had some doubts whether this book would add much, but having enjoyed Levy's "Hackers", I bought this book as well. This book focuses on the second half of the 20th century, and on the subjects of privacy in the digital era, and thus has little in common with Singh's book. The book covers a lot of ground in a relatively short text (about 300 pages) in a clear and fascinating way, and I've enjoyed the book and finished it in a couple of days. Other reviewers noted that the book contains little technical information. I think it makes for better focus on the larger issues of privacy, security, e-commerce, etc. For the gory details, one can read books such as Bruce Schneier's Applied Cryptography. My only problem with the book is that it is somewhat biased against the U.S. government's position.
Rating:
Summary: Levy Strikes Again
Review: If you liked Hackers, you'll love Crypto. It's written in the same spirit, celebrating cryptographers in the same way Levy celebrated hackers, and along the way makes a really strong case for private freedoms over government intervention. It's a great story, very newsworthy, and Levy really knows his stuff. And if you haven't read Hackers, try that one, too. You won't be disappointed!
Rating: 
Summary: Would the story be different after 9/11?
Review: Interesting book that really summarizes the efforts of the multitude of techies trying to keep cryptogrophy out of the government sponsored purview. However, in reading the book I kept wondering, especially with regards to the whole Clipper fiasco, if the story might have turned out differently if the starting point was after 9/11. I am still waiting to see/hear about encoded messages that were decoded after the attack, that might have warned us before hand. In no way do I think the government should have an open hand into my communications, but when factored against stopping the slaughter of thousands, then I become a little unsure. All in all, the book was excellent and did what all good books should do - it made me think. Mr. Lvey - Loved Hackers as well. Just bought Artificial Life to see if you are consistent.
Rating: 
Summary: Drab and Uninteresting
Review: It is more of a history of the characters than the history of RSA or cryptography. I would recommend Simon Singh's The Code Book for anyone wanting to learn about the history of cryptography. In just one chapter of the Code Book, Simon Singh puts in more unbiased and detailed information in an infinitely more interesting and readable manner than Levy crams in this whole book of uninteresting chapters.
Rating:
Summary: Plaintext review :)
Review: It was a great to learn about the origins of crypto and the different people which brought about this revolution to protect privacy of everyone.At times i admit i had to read a paragraph twice as it became confusing sometimes but all in all a great book and a must read for anyone interested in crypto.
Rating:
Summary: Engaging and Readable
Review: Levy does a good job of making a complex and potentially dry subject readable for a wide audience. Using an approach similar to the approach he took in _Hackers_, he uses the the personal history of the participants as a lens to study the history of a technology development. _Crypto_ outlines the history of cryptography as it lurched towards public availability. Levy provides an overview of both technical and political obstacles that occurred along the way. Examines issues of control, personal freedom, and national security.
Rating:
Summary: Compelling story should be of interest to all 'net users
Review: Levy is one of my favorite essayists. He finds a compelling story, researches it exhaustively, and then shares his excitement. The history of Internet cryptography is a perfect subject for Levy, who delights in recounting stories about technoradicals with new ideas who see them through to fruition. Encryption truly is one of the most critical technologies necessary for a smoothly functioning virtual world, and is very much the case that the U.S. Federal Government successfully delayed the general availability of strong encryption for at least a decade. (Future economists may point back to the last two decades of the 20th century and show how this failed government policy was responsible for the loss of U.S. dominance in the high-tech market.) It would have been easy to take the politically correct road and portray the Feds as being evil conspirators, bent on maintaining their own power and pride at the expense of the entire world. Levy chooses a more balanced approach, depicting the NSA in nearly heroic terms. He is especially sympathetic towards Clint Brooks (a name I did not know), an NSA lifer who developed the key escrow concept as a compromise that would allow widespread public utilization of strong encryption while still allowing law enforcement (and of course, intelligence agencies), the ability to intercept communications under controlled circumstances. If both the NSA and their philosophical opponents are heroes with noble goals, a tragic ending is inevitable, which adds an element of pathos to this triumph of democracy. As a former software vendor, I've been totally frustrated by both the crypto export laws and by the NSA attitude of "If you only knew what we knew, you wouldn't even ask that question." That argument turned out to be just as specious now as everyone thought it was at the time, but the marvelous aspect of this book is that Levy is able to make a cynic like me accept that the people within the Puzzle Palace have legitimate motivations. (He is much harsher on the FBI, and creates an especially unflattering portrayal of Louie Freeh). It's a well-balanced approach to a very contentious subject, which adds considerably to the author's credibility. Personalities loom large in a history like this one, and Levy is a master at drawing them out of their personal shells and detailing aspects of their private lives to explain their motivations and feelings. Whitfield Diffie is the old master who had the vision to conceive of a new model for encryption that would meet the unprecedented needs of a network society. Ron Rivest was the energy behind the development of the most significant public key algorithm, created by an unlikely trio of inventors. Jim Bidzos was a young playboy who found the commercialization of the RSA technology to be the challenge he needed in his hitherto shallow life of world travel, hot cars and fast women. Like Diffie, Phil Zimmerman marches to a drummer that only he can hear, yet this amateur programmer succeeded in popularizing strong encryption long before RSA and its millions in venture cap money did. Given his ten years of personal research and interviews of the people he chronicles, Levy's will probably be the definitive written account on many of these quirky visionaries. The book is a quick read, but a good one. Technically, it is very accurate, with one unfortunate mistake on page 178 where it reads "Then he uses the hash function to recreate Alice's message from the digest..." Hash functions are 1-way functions, and cannot be reversed. If it read instead, "Then he uses the hash function to recreate Alice's message digest..." it would be more accurate. In order to verify a digital signature, the encrypted hash value provided by the sender is decrypted by their public key, which is then compared to another hash value generated by the verifying party (see p. 38 of "Applied Cryptography, 2nd Edition" by Bruce Schneier). Other than this confusion over how digital signatures are verified, the book does an excellent job of presenting the concepts of public key encryption to a non-technical reader. Besides being an enjoyable tale of business and technology history, this book could also be considered an executive-level introduction to the need for encryption on the Internet and the ways in which modern implementations provide it. If you want to know what is happening when that little lock icon at the bottom of your web browser closes, you'll find a conceptual answer in this book. You'll not only learn the sequence of events that led to the development of SSL, but you'll also read the history of the first successful attempt to crack SSL security, and its significance to you as a customer of sites like Amazon. "Crypto" should appeal not only to those who are interested in the history of technology, but anyone wanting to understand more about the history and personal and commercial use of encryption on the Internet. Anyone involved in an e-commerce project or with an interest in information security would find this an interesting and accessible book. It is not a technology book per se, but I think most technically-oriented people will enjoy reading about how people like them had the drive and vision to change the world-especially when the odds were so heavily stacked against them. This is a compelling and important story that needs to be told and understood. Levy is neither the first to undertake this telling, and undoubtedly won't be the last, but I'm convinced that this will become a classic of technology history-even more so than his earlier books. His thoroughness, extensive research, and evenhanded approach will make this book an important source for future researchers.
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