Crypto (book)

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Crypto: How the Code Rebels Beat the Government, Saving Privacy in the Digital Age is a 2001 nonfiction book by Steven Levy. It explains how cryptography developed—from basic codes to modern encryption—and why privacy matters in the digital world. The book discusses public-key cryptography, digital signatures, and the pushback between government agencies like the NSA and activists called cypherpunks. It covers key milestones such as the Data Encryption Standard (DES), the RSA algorithm, and the Clipper chip, showing how encryption evolved to protect everyday privacy and security online.