This timely and important book gives a comprehensive historical overview of technologies and practices of wiretapping and encryption.
Telecommunications are notoriously susceptible to interception and invasions of privacy.
By presenting a historical overview of the law and practice of wiretapping and encryption, this book provides a framework for the critique of current policy initiatives. This book provides not only an accessible description of encryption technologies, it also provides a history of the use of wiretapping and encryption by social institutions, especially law enforcement and national security agencies. From this historical perspective, it questions and evaluates the policy initiatives that these agencies are pursuing in reaction to current trends in telecommunication and cryptography. On the whole, the authors have succeeded admirably. Cryptographic systems are used both to authenticate messages and to ensure their privacy.