From rec.arts.sf.reviews Thu Feb 11 16:24:18 1999 Path: news.ifm.liu.se!news.lth.se!feed2.news.luth.se!luth.se!tfl450.tfl.hk-r.se!news-peer-europe.sprintlink.net!news.sprintlink.net!Sprint!cam-news-hub1.bbnplanet.com!news.gtei.net!bloom-beacon.mit.edu!senator-bedfellow.mit.edu!usenet From: "Rob Slade, doting grandpa of Ryan and Trevor" Newsgroups: rec.arts.sf.reviews Subject: REVIEW: "Mercury Rising", Douglas Pearson Ryne Followup-To: rec.arts.sf.written Date: 07 Feb 1999 11:32:17 -0500 Organization: Vancouver Institute for Research into User Lines: 67 Sender: wex@tinbergen.media.mit.edu Approved: wex@media.mit.edu Message-ID: Reply-To: rslade@sprint.ca NNTP-Posting-Host: tinbergen.media.mit.edu X-Newsreader: Gnus v5.3/Emacs 19.34 Xref: news.ifm.liu.se rec.arts.sf.reviews:2256 Mercury Rising by Douglas Pearson Ryne Review copyright Robert M. Slade, 1999 Well, the other day I read "Mercury Rising." That's right, read, not watched. Actually, the movie was based on a book originally published as "Simple Simon," and, of course, the book was re-issued in conjunction with the movie release. The book is about an autistic boy who, in the idiot savant way that sometimes comes with autism, is able to crack mathematically encrypted messages simply by looking at them. Unlikely? True. But I wouldn't want to bet against the abilities of organic computers. They can do some amazing things. (By the way, I was amused to find out that Bruce Willis is Black.) Let's start with the satellite. Now, this is a KH designation satellite, so no wonder it needs a crypto upgrade. Except, hold on a minute. The description of what it does doesn't have anything to do with spying or intelligence gathering. This is a plain, old, ordinary comsat, picking up messages and relaying them. It doesn't need encryption capability any more than a piece of copper wire needs encryption: it just passes bits. The bits might be encrypted at source and decrypted at the destination, but that doesn't matter to the bits. In fact, if the message *isn't* encrypted at source, there is no point in encrypting it enroute. But just suppose we do need encryption. OK, we'll send up the upgrade. Ready the command mode for reprogr... What? You're sending up a black box on the shuttle? And not just a tape, or anything: this is a module that is going to have to be swapped out for the box that is there? Well, let's leave the satellite for the moment, shall we? Right, we have this new, super duper encryption algorithm. Seems to be an awful lot like DES, what with S boxes and all. Hmmm. Seems to be even more like someone's misunderstood version of triple DES, but we'll let that pass. Has one heck of a key length, though. Wouldn't be very effective on short messages. Everybody is to use it. NSA, diplomatic corp, CIA, FBI, everybody. Same algorithm. Same crypto gear. Same key. Ummm, excuse me? Good thing it's a long key, I guess. No, wait, that doesn't make any more sense... Right, let's move on to hackers. Now, of course, everyone who is any good at using computers is unhygienic. Or crippled. Or both. This also applies to mathematicians, apparently. And, of course, any evil hacker is completely undetectable as he slides down the T-1s of the nation, slipping into computers that have no connection to outside networks at all. Especially one who is working for the government because he got caught doing this. OK, I've believed enough impossible things before breakfast. If we have to get into white hat/black hat Illuminati, both groups completely occult, my brain is going to start to hurt. %A Douglas Pearson Ryne %C 1350 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY 10019 %D 1998 %G 038002945 %I Avon Books/The Hearst Corporation %O +1-800-238-0658 %T "Mercury Rising" rslade@vcn.bc.ca rslade@sprint.ca robertslade@usa.net p1@canada.com Find virus, book info http://victoria.tc.ca/techrev/rms.htm Mirrored at http://sun.soci.niu.edu/~rslade/rms.htm Linked to bookstore at http://www97.pair.com/robslade/ Robert Slade's Guide to Computer Viruses, 0-387-94663-2 (800-SPRINGER)