Digital Fortress by Dan Brown

Title:

Digital Fortress

Author:

Dan Brown

Setting:

Spain

Characters:

Dave Becker

Susan Fletcher

Ensei Tankado

Trevor Strathmore

Introduction:

"NSA cryptographer Susan Fletcher is told that their powerful code breaking machine, TRANSLTR, has encountered a code it cannot break. The code is written by a former NSA employee, Ensei Tankado, who demands that the US government admits publicly to having the TRANSLTR. If not, he will release the code that TRANSLTR can't break, thus making the code breaking machine useless.

Fletcher's fiancée, professor David Becker, is sent to Spain to collect Ensei Tankado's belongings. Tankado has died from a heart attack, and Becker has to find the pass-key to unlock the code before someone else does.

Susan Fletcher, David Becker and NSA Commander Trevor Strathmore try to find the pass-key, and at the same time they have to keep the threat a secret from the rest of the world."

Plot:

"Susan is one of the top Code breakers at the NSA. She monitors the use of the code breaking machine that can break all codes in less than 3 hrs and is used by all forms of US intelligance. She is called in when a program is still running after 12+ hrs. At the same time her fiance is sent to Spain to try and locate the "key" to stopping the release of a code program that will allow the NSA to break codes that Digital Fortress (the encrypting program) is used to protect. In Spain it becomes clear that someone is out to keep the key safe as people who have come in contact with it are killed.
The story follows the progress to not only figuring out who has planted the code but how to keep it from letting the world into the NSA files."
"The National Security Agency (NSA) is one setting for this exciting thriller; the other is Seville, where on page 1 the protagonist, lately dismissed from NSA, drops dead of a supposed heart attack. Though dead, he enjoys a dramaturgical afterlife in the form of his computer program. Digital Fortress creates unbreakable codes, which could render useless NSA's code-cracking supercomputer called TRANSLTR, but the deceased programmer slyly embossed a decryption key on a ring he wore. NSA cryptology boss Trevor Strathmore dispatches linguist Dave Becker to recover the ring, while he and Becker's lover, senior code-cracker Susan Fletcher, ponder the vulnerability of TRANSLTR. In Seville, over-the-top chase scenes abound; meanwhile, the critical events unfold at NSA. In a crescendo of murder, infernos, and explosions. While letting the world believe that certain strong encryption algorithms are too mathematically complicated to break in a reasonable amount of time given current technology, the NSA (National Security Association) has developed a machine which can break anything- until a new unbreakable encryption algorithm is created by an individual with a grudge against the NSA. The NSA find themselves in a position of needing to intercept and destroy the algorithm before it can be released to the world and render their spying efforts useless. Along the way there are twists and turns and different individuals with different agendas to add some excitement to the story. "the NSA [National Security Agency, but so secret that it's also known as No Such Agency] lobbied fiercely against all new encryption software, insisting it crippled them and made it impossible for lawmakers to catch and prosecute the criminals. Civil rights groups cried foul, insisting the NSA shouldn't be reading their mail anyway. Encryption software kept rolling off the presses. The NSA had lost the battle--exactly as it had planned

Resolution:

"Information age terrorism is the topical subject of Brown's inventive debut thriller about a virtual attack on the National Security Agency's top-secret super computer, TRANSLTR. Although TRANSLTR is meant to monitor and decode e-mail between terrorists, the computer can also covertly intercept e-mail between private citizens. The latter capability drives former NSA programmer Ensei Tankado to paralyze TRANSLTR with Digital Fortress, a devious mathematical formula with an unbreakable code. Tankado then demands that the NSA publicly admit TRANSLTR's existence or he will auction Digital Fortress's pass-key to the highest bidder. Brown cleverly makes ironic, mischievous Tankado (who dies in the first chapter) the most interesting character in the book and its real protagonist, as the programmer posthumously outmaneuvers his opposition, countering their obsessive quest for complex solutions with brilliant simplicity. His favorite saying, "Who will guard the guards?" stands in noble contrast to the NSA agents self-righteous insistence that they always know what is best for America... In this fast-paced, plausible tale, Brown blurs the line between good and evil enough to delight patriots and paranoids alike."