DATE=10/27/1999 TYPE=ENGLISH PROGRAMS FEATURE (INTERVIEW) TITLE="THE CODE BOOK,' BY SIMON SINGH NUMBER=7-32948 BYLINE=DAN NOBLE DATELINE=WASHINGTON EDITOR=NANCY SMART TELEPHONE=202 966-7412 CONTENT= (Technology) INTRO: In December, the Clinton administration is expected to lift a ban on the export of American made encryption products. Such devices are used to ensure the privacy of data transmitted across the Internet. But, the subject of secret codes is nothing new. And, the age old problem of trying to keep information secret is the subject of a new volume entitled "The Code Book." Dan Noble speaks with Simon Singh, the volume's author. DN: Dr. Singh, your book is in two parts. First, you chart the evolution of codes. In the second, you demonstrate how the subject is more relevant today. When did codes really begin? SS: Before codes you have something called steganography. Steganography is about hiding the existence of a message. So, if I want you send you a message, I take my messenger and I might shave his head, tattoo the message on the scalp, wait for the hair to re-grow, send the messenger on his way. Then, when the messenger reaches you, you shave his head and reveal the message. That is simply hiding a message. That particular example comes from Herdotus... DN: The ancient Greeks. SS: .the ancient Greeks. But, in parallel with steganography, where you are just hiding the message, you have cryptography where you are hiding the meaning of a message by scrambling it up. That was really invented, in many parts of the world, 300, 400, 500 years BC. In India, the Kama-sutra talks about a method of scrambling up messages. Women had to learn 64 arts, from poetry, to embroidery, to code making. So, it's a very ancient practice. DN: It is still relevant today. It's in the news. SS: Yes. This is one of those things. People tend to think of codes and cryptography as being a medieval subject, or dominating the Victorian era, or the First and Second World War. But, today, we live in the information age. Information is a commodity. The only way you can protect that commodity is by using encryption. There is this expression that "Encryption will provide the locks and keys of the information age." DN: You tell us in your book that the question is "Which do we value more: Our privacy, or an effective police force?" Do we have to make this dichotomy? SS: The whole history of code making, code breaking, is a battle between these two opposing forces. Today, the code makers are ahead. We have, effectively, unbreakable codes, which is okay for you and me because when I go back to London I can send you an e- mail. I can encrypt it. We can be confident that our privacy is secure. It is very good for e-commerce because big Internet companies can sell things on the Internet. And, again, be sure that credit cards are protected, and so on. The flip side of this is that terrorists, drug dealers, organized crime and so on can also use encryption to avoid wire tapes and so on. Back in the 1960s one of the reason why wiretaps increased in number was that the police couldn't get people to testify against the Mafia. Wire taps were a way of gaining evidence in that sort of situation. Now, if those groups use encryption, law enforcers, security organizations, have lost one vital tool in the way they gain convictions and protect society. So, the challenge for politicians and cryptographers is to come with a system that allows us to protect our privacy, but it doesn't allow criminals to abuse the technology that exists. (///OPT///) DN: Dr. Singh, it certainly takes a creative mind to develop encryption devices. What kind of person do you finding doing this? SS: It is strange because the impact of making or breaking a code is enormous - whether it is personal privacy, whether it's economically, whether it's militarily. Countless lives have been lost and saved because of the making or breaking of a code. But I think the code breakers and code makers themselves are actually just curious people. They love puzzles. They love solving problems. In a way, they are quite innocent although the consequences of their work are quite enormous and quite profound. (///END OPT///) DN: Today we have a development known as quantum cryptography. What is this? SS: Quantum cryptography is a new form of code. Today, we have incredibly secure codes. If those codes were jeopardized, were broken, than that would de-stabilize economies, de- stabilize our privacy as individuals, de- stabilize military balances. So, code makers have already got something new up their sleeve that they could use in such a situation. It is known as quantum cryptography. It works according to the following principal: In quantum physics, whenever you observe something, you necessarily change it. If I stare at a dollar bill the photons must bounce off the dollar bill and into my eye. That impact, that momentum, will change the face of the bill. Imperceptibly, but there will be a change. Similarly, if I send you a message, and that message is made of individual electrons, or individual photons, if anybody tries to intercept that message, they must observe that message. If they observe it, they change it. If they change it, we can spot that change and we know there is an observer there on the line. We can stop communicating. So, quantum cryptography is a way of preventing the interception of a message, really, and therefore guaranteeing security that way. It is thought to be absolutely unbreakable. People have said this through the centuries that a code is unbreakable. But this seems to be truly, truly unbreakable. DN: Do you think it is? SS: There are only two ways you will ever break this code. One is if our understanding of the laws of physics is fundamentally wrong. And, secondly, if they are right, the only way to break the code is to change the laws of physics. Either way, it's a tough job. DN: Thank you, very much, Dr. Singh. We've been speaking with Simon Singh, author of "The Code Book." I'm Dan Noble. Neb/dn/nes 7 27-Oct-1999 13:45 PM EDT (27-Oct-1999 1745 UTC) NNNN Source: Voice of America .