Resumo de Digital Fortress

Digital Fortress by Dan Brown; Corgi Books; Price:
Rs.567; 510pp.

Digital Fortress is the latest book from Dan Brown,
who hit the top of best-selling charts through his novel
The Da Vinci Code. Though not so famous as the
latter, this account is quite absorbing and a fast-paced
action thriller. Brown, a former English and creative
writing teacher touches upon the subject of internet
security and how e-mails messages, popularly perceived as
safe, secure and fast mode of communication, can be
accessed and read by security agencies across the world.
Digital Fortress is a gripping and fast-paced techno-
thriller is perhaps more popular among technophiles and
computer geeks than others.

The action-packed story of Digital Fortress moves on two
parallel planes: one in the headquarters of America?s
National Security Agency (NSA), and another in the form of
a race against time across continents for a gold ring. In
most military intelligence and war stories, the weaponry
comprises machine guns, tanks and explosives etc. But in
Digital Fortress the combat hardware is something
that almost all of us use in daily lives, i.e computers, e-
mail and the world wide web aka internet. The protagonists
primarily fight with brainpower, though there are some
instances where firepower i.e guns are also employed. The
best thing about Digital Fortress is perhaps the knowledge
and understanding about computer-aided encryption and code-
breaking technologies such as brute force, algorithms,
square coding etc which is simplistically explained.

The book starts off with an emergency at United States? NSA
when it?s supposedly invincible code-breaking
computer ?TRANSLTR? with more than a million processors,
encounters a mysterious code it cannot break. Trevor
Strathmore, deputy director of the NSA calls the agency?s
head cryptographer, Susan Fletcher, a brilliant
mathematician to assist in finding a solution. What she
uncovers sends shock waves through the corridors of power.
The NSA is being held hostage - not by a nuclear bomb -
but by software so complex that if released would cripple
American intelligence. Thus begins the real or rather the
virtual war on cyberspace, where the ?bomb? (an encryption
algorithm) will explode, exposing the entire American
defence ministry?s data to anyone and everyone.

In the novel, ?Digital Fortress? is actually the name given
to a code created by mathematics wizard, encryption
software expert and former employee of NSA, Ensie Tankado.
A code with a potential to derail NSA?s efforts to keep
tabs on all the data that is transmitted on the information
superhighway, stumps the agency?s secret multi-billion
dollar code-breaking computer TRANSLTR. Born with deformed
fingers due to the effect of nuclear radiation his mother
suffered at Hiroshima, Tankado grows up thirsting for
revenge against the United States. Later as he grows older,
Tankado reads about Japanese war crimes and Pearl Harbour
and his hatred for America slowly fades. He starts learning
computers in his 12th year and by 20 Tankado becomes a cult
figure among programmers and is offered a job in Texas, US
by IBM. Soon after his arrival, Tankado rides a wave of
fame and fortune writing algorithms, forcing NSA to offer
him a job in its team of cryptographers.

A respecter of human rights, Tankado quits NSA when he
comes to know that through its super computer ? TRANSLTR ?
the agency could access and open everyone?s e-mail and
reseal it without their knowing. Tankado a firm believer of
the Latin saying ?Quis custodiet ipsos custodies?
meaning ?Who will guard the guards?? tries to go public
with news about TRANSLTR and its capability with the help
of Electronic Frontier Foundation -- an online group of
people championing for personal right to secrecy in
electronic communications ? but is captured, accused of
spying and deportedto Japan. To take revenge for his
disgraceful exit from the NSA and US, Tankado
creates ?Digital Fortress? and unleashes it on TRANSLTR.

The virtual attack on the TANSLTR sparks off two chains of
events -- a battle with a traitor within NSA headquarters
that envelops Fletcher, and a race across continents for a
gold ring worn by Tankado, on which is engraved the Latin
key to break the code and save vital defence data of the
United States. The race draws in David Becker, Fletcher?s
fiancé, who travels to Spain to retrieve the gold ring. In
Seville, thrilling chase scenes, chilling murders and
miraculous escapes result in Becker gaining possession of
the ring. Meanwhile, at NSA, there is a crescendo of
murder, infernos, and explosions, and it emerges that
Strathmore, has as agenda that goes beyond decoding Digital
Fortress. The author?s skill at hinting and concealing
Strathmore?s deceit will hold readers till the finish.

After reading this book, it is difficult to read, write or
send e-mails without getting the eerie feeling that
someone, somewhere across the world maybe clandestinely
reading your correspondence. Or maybe some may think of
evolving their own unbreakable code to encrypt their e-
mail, to ensure confidential communication even if a
TRANSLTR is working halfway across the world.

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