“Digital Fortress” is one of the most fascinating technology-ridden novels I have ever read. However, I got surprised at how the author, Dan Brown, could manage to intertwine four different stories running concurrently and at the same time still remain within the context. How the author has managed to imaginatively reflect on how humans can be held hostage by narrow belief on one machine- that such kinds of reliance on one gadget can lead to disaster if a breakdown occurs. In fact, no one would expect the story to be all that science-oriented, at least considering its romantic beginning. No one would either expect the story to be highly science-oriented as has been displayed. I am a little surprised how the author could keep it thrilling with all this scientific jargons. Each story leaves one in suspense, but at the end of it all, they have conjoined together at the end everything, signifying the end.
The other more surprising thing about the book is the ending. The code is just but a simple digit numbers of 3.1. The author makes it look less intriguing at the end of it. It illustrates that what we imagine as complex may just but simple things that we make look complex within our imaginations. While it is believed that cryptographic algorithms are always complex, the end of the book shows that what people normally assume to be complicated are always simple. In fact, they are far less complicated than what people would imagine of. But honestly, from the setting of the book and the scientific knowledge involved in it, I would have expected a more complicated code than 3.1. This was somewhat surprising.
The title of the book is ‘Digital Fortress’. Basically, this book Digital Fortress is about a lady by the name Sarah, who is part a National Security Agency. Sarah’s fiancé is called David. Under Sarah’s leadership, NSA has managed to invent a program, TRANSLTR, or the ‘digital fortress’ which could be used to break any code on use in planet earth. As they found out later, TRANSLTR cannot break all codes as earlier anticipated, and apparently faced by a code that is unbreakable. Susan later discovers that NSA has been held hostage by a code that has the potential of crippling the United States intelligence. Her role is to find out exactly how to break this code. Her boyfriend, David is also engaged in the process of finding a way out, but in a different location Seville, Spain. He is in search for the creator of this code so that he would get access to the password to the code.
While it is possible to assume that some scientific innovations are too complicated to be overcome, Digital Fortress has just proved that no amount of encryption algorithms can resist breakage, given time and increased innovative technologies that emerges everyday. The NSA has to find a way out to destroy the new encryption in order to guarantee security of their spying business. There so many twists and turns in the whole story, and the concept of digital fortress can be interpreted in Sarah, whose knowledge of algorithm is excellent.