Lost in Encryption

I thoroughly enjoying Digital Fortress by Dan Brown. I have not yet got around to reading The Da Vinci Code - I do own it (bought it few months ago in Ho Chi Minh City), I just haven't got around to reading it yet. My guess is I probably the one & only in my country to own a pirated copy of The Da Vinci Code! Digital Fortress however caught my interest because it related directly to mathematics, algorithms, computers and network security. Dan Brown certainly does his homework w.r.t. computer security technology and he talks intelligently about encryption algorithms. The crux of this story revolves around a new encryption algorithm which, even with a relatively small numeric key, is almost completely unbreakable. I found the book fast-paced and engaging. I usually don't take many forays into the world of crime & thriller fiction, but if you like encryption and algorithms, I highly recommend this book.

One imperfection of this book: I wish Susan Fletcher is a more useful person in the book than just a flower vase. May be the book is meant to be of patriarchal content, but it doesn't make sense a country's National Security Agency would hire such a dumb head as head of crypto.

8-1-16-16-25 18-5-1-4-9-14-7!