1.0The New York Review of Bookshttps://www.nybooks.comPauline Cochranhttps://www.nybooks.com/contributors/paulinecochran/The Ears of America |rich600338<blockquote class="wp-embedded-content" data-secret="rwtJHoeM9m"><a href="https://www.nybooks.com/articles/1983/02/03/the-ears-of-america/">The Ears of America</a></blockquote><iframe sandbox="allow-scripts" security="restricted" src="https://www.nybooks.com/articles/1983/02/03/the-ears-of-america/embed/#?secret=rwtJHoeM9m" width="600" height="338" title="“The Ears of America” — The New York Review of Books" data-secret="rwtJHoeM9m" frameborder="0" marginwidth="0" marginheight="0" scrolling="no" class="wp-embedded-content"></iframe><script type="text/javascript">
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https://www.nybooks.com/wp-content/uploads/1983/02/Dean-surveillance.png590443"Brute force" is a phrase which turns up often in James Bamford's useful investigation of the National Security Agency, the largest but least known of American intelligence services. As used by NSA officials, "brute force" refers to the method of last resort in cracking secret codes. The best method is to obtain the key to the code by stealing it, buying it, or figuring it out, but that is often impossible. A "brute force" attack simply tries out all the possible keys to a code identified through intercepted messages. These possibilities can be very numerous.