DIGITAL FORTRESS - SFBA Book Club

Hardcover, 371 pages

English language

Published Dec. 24, 2005 by Bantam Press.

ISBN:: 978-0-593-05744-5

(1 review)

Digital Fortress is a techno-thriller novel written by American author Dan Brown and published in 1998 by St. Martin's Press. The book explores the theme of government surveillance of electronically stored information on the private lives of citizens, and the possible civil liberties and ethical implications of using such technology.

Ashwin reviewed DIGITAL FORTRESS by Dan Brown

Review of 'DIGITAL FORTRESS' on 'Goodreads'

3 stars

This is Dan Brown's first fictional work. The story involves the ultra secret NSA and its cryptographic department. The NSA has built a 3 million processor computer named TRANSLTR which can crack any ciphertext by means of brute force. But, it is one day challenged with a ciphertext that it can't crack. Also, the creator of the new encryption algorithm named Digital Fortress threatens to go public with this algo if NSA doesn't reveal to the world that it has been snooping on the world's information using TRANSLTR. But, there is more to it. There is a chance of USA's biggest secrets being revealed to the world.

Compared to The Da Vinci Code, Digital Fortress is quite amateurish, especially the former half. The main protagonist is a female cryptographer who is in love and has a fabulous figure to boot. The book rests on cryptography, so the author tries to …

This is Dan Brown's first fictional work. The story involves the ultra secret NSA and its cryptographic department. The NSA has built a 3 million processor computer named TRANSLTR which can crack any ciphertext by means of brute force. But, it is one day challenged with a ciphertext that it can't crack. Also, the creator of the new encryption algorithm named Digital Fortress threatens to go public with this algo if NSA doesn't reveal to the world that it has been snooping on the world's information using TRANSLTR. But, there is more to it. There is a chance of USA's biggest secrets being revealed to the world.

Compared to The Da Vinci Code, Digital Fortress is quite amateurish, especially the former half. The main protagonist is a female cryptographer who is in love and has a fabulous figure to boot. The book rests on cryptography, so the author tries to explain every single crypto jargon in layman terms. This read quite funny to me in most cases. Thankfully, by the the time I hit the latter parts, the book was a nail biting page turner with Brown throwing up twist after twist. In parts of the book the EFF and the right to information show up. An enjoyable read.