Digital Fortress Chapter 31

Susan returned to Node 3. Her conversation with Strathmore had do her increasingly anxious about Davids safety. Her supposition was running wild.So, obligate spouted from his terminal. What did Strathmore want? A romantic evening alone with his proposition cryptographer?Susan ignored the comment and colonized in at her terminal. She typed her privacy edict and the screen came to life. The tracer program came into enchant it still had non returned any culture on North Dakota.Damn, Susan thought. Whats taking so long?You seem uptight, healthy verbalise innocently. Having trouble with your diagnostic?Nothing serious, she replied. and Susan wasnt so sure. The tracer was overdue. She wondered if peradventure shed do a mistake while create verb entirelyy it. She prayan s usher outning the long lines of LIMBO programing on her screen, searching for anything that could be property things up. hang back observed her smugly. Hey, I meant to pack you, he ventured. What do you mak e of that infrangible algorithmic rule Ensei Tankado said he was physical composition?Susans stomach did a flip. She looked up. Unbreakable algorithm? She caught herself. Oh, yeah I take I meditate something about that.Pretty unbelievable claim.Yeah, Susan replied, wondering why trail had dead brought it up. I dont buy it, though. Everyone k straights an unbreakable algorithm is a mathematical impossibility.Hale smiled. Oh, yeah the Bergofsky Principle.And park sense, she snapped.Who knows Hale sighed dramatic on the wholey. There are more things in heaven and primer than are dreamt of in your philosophy.I beg your pardon?Shakespeare, Hale offered. Hamlet.Read a haulage while you were in confine?Hale chuckled. Seriously, Susan, did you ever think that whitethornbe it is possible, that maybe Tankado really did write an unbreakable algorithm?This conversation was making Susan uneasy. Well, we couldnt do it.Maybe Tankados better than we are.Maybe. Susan shrugged, feigning disinterest.We corresponded for a while, Hale offered casually. Tankado and me. Did you know that?Susan looked up, attempting to hide her shock. rattling?Yeah. After I uncovered the click beetle algorithm, he wrote me-said we were brothers in the global employment for digital privacy.Susan could barely contain her disbelief. Hale knows Tankado personally She did her best to look uninterested.Hale went on. He congratulated me for proving that Skipjack had a suffer admission-called it a coup for privacy rights of civilians all over the world. You gotta admit, Susan, the backdoor in Skipjack was an underhanded play. Reading the worlds E-mail? If you ask me, Strathmore be to beat caught.Greg, Susan snapped, fighting her anger, that back door was so the NSA could de cypher E-mail that imperil this nations security.Oh, really? Hale sighed innocently. And sighting the average citizen was further a lucky by-product?We dont snoop average citizens, and you know it. The FBI can sm ash telephones, exclusively that doesnt mean they listen to all(prenominal) call thats ever made.If they had the manpower, they would.Susan ignored the remark. Governments should bemuse the right to gather information that threatens the common good.Jesus Christ-Hale sighed-you sound same youve been brainwashed by Strathmore. You know raspberry well the FBI cant listen in whenever they want-theyve got to redeem a warrant. A spiked encryption standard would mean the NSA could listen in to anyone, anytime, anywhere.Youre right-as we should be able to Susans utter was all of a sudden harsh. If you hadnt uncovered the back door in Skipjack, wed have access to every code we indispensableness to break, instead of just what TRANSLTR can handle.If I hadnt found the back door, Hale argued, someone else would have. I saved your asses by uncovering it when I did. Can you approximate the fallout if Skipjack had been in circulation when the news broke?Either way, Susan shot back, now w eve got a paranoid EFF who think we put back doors in all our algorithms.Hale asked smugly, Well, dont we?Susan eyed him coldly.Hey, he said, patronage off, the point is moot now anyway. You reinforced TRANSLTR. Youve got your instant information source. You can read what you want, when you want-no questions asked. You win.Dont you mean we win? Last I heard, you worked for the NSA.Not for long, Hale chirped.Dont make promises.Im serious. someday Im getting out of here.Ill be crushed.In that moment, Susan found herself wanting to curse Hale for everything that wasnt going right. She wanted to curse him for digital Fortress, for her troubles with David, for the fact that she wasnt in the Smokys-but none of it was his fault. Hales further fault was that he was obnoxious. Susan needed to be the bigger person. It was her responsibility as take cryptographer to keep the peace, to educate. Hale was new(a) and naive.Susan looked over at him. It was frustrating, she thought, that Hale ha d the endowment fund to be an asset in Crypto, but he still hadnt grasped the importance of what the NSA did.Greg, Susan said, her voice quiet and controlled, Im under a nap of pressure today. I just get upset when you talk about the NSA analogous were some kind of high-tech peeping Tom. This make-up was founded for one purpose-to protect the security of this nation. That may involve shaking a few trees and looking for the crowing apples from time to time. I think most citizens would gladly give over some privacy to know that the bad guys cant maneuver unchecked.Hale said nothing. to begin with or later, Susan argued, the people of this nation need to put their trust somewhere. Theres a lot of good out in that respect-but theres also a lot of bad mixed in. person has to have access to all of it and crystallize the right from wrong. Thats our job. Thats our duty. Whether we like it or not, there is a frail gate separating body politic from anarchy. The NSA guards that gate. Hale nodded thoughtfully. Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?Susan looked puzzled.Its Latin, Hale said. From Satires of Juvenal. It means Who leave guard the guards? I dont get it, Susan said. Who allow guard the guards? Yeah. If were the guards of society, then who will meet us and make sure that were not dangerous?Susan nodded, unsure how to respond.Hale smiled. Its how Tankado gestural all his letters to me. It was his favorite saying.