Synopsis

When the National Security Agency’s invincible code-breaking machine encounters a mysterious code it cannot break, the agency calls in its head cryptographer, Susan Fletcher, a brilliant, beautiful mathematician. What she uncovers sends shock waves through the corridors of power. The NSA is being held hostage – not by guns or bombs, but by a code so complex that if released would cripple U.S. intelligence.

Caught in an accelerating tempest of secrecy and lies, Fletcher battles to save the agency she believes in. Betrayed on all sides, she finds herself fighting not only for her country but for her life, and in the end, for the life of the man she loves…

Bizarre True Facts

‘In large cities, Americans are photographed on the average of 20 times a day.

Everything you charge is in a database that police, among others, can look at.

Supermarkets track what you purchase and sell the information to direct-mail marketing firms.

Your employer is allowed to read your E-Mail, and if you use your company's health insurance to purchase drugs, your employer has access to that information.

Government computers scan your E-Mail for subversive language.

Your cell phone calls can be intercepted, and your access numbers can be cribbed by eavesdroppers with police scanners.

You register your whereabouts every time you use an ATM, credit card, or use EZ PASS at a toll booth.

You are often being watched when you visit web sites. Servers know what you're looking at, what you download, and how long you stay on a page.

A political candidate found his career destroyed by a newspaper that published a list of all the videos he had ever rented.

Most "baby monitors" can be intercepted 100 feet outside the home.

Intelligence agencies now have "micro-bots" -- tiny, remote control, electronic "bugs" that literally can fly into your home and look around without your noticing.

Anyone with $100 can tap your phone.

A new technology called TEMPEST can intercept what you are typing on your keypad (from 100 feet away through a cement wall.)

The National Security Agency has a submarine that can intercept and decipher digital communications from the RF emissions of underwater phone cables.

About the Author

Dan Brown is the bestselling author of Digital Fortress, Deception Point, Angels and Demons and The Da Vinci Code. He is a graduate of Amherst College and Phillips Exeter Academy, where he has taught English and creative writing. He lives in New England. More books by this author Author 'Like for Like' recommendation