The Puzzle Palace
by James Bamford · first published 1982
37% recommend63% neutral
Why HN recommends it
In-depth history of the NSA, from telegraph-era surveillance arrangements to its collect-everything approach. Suits readers who want background on what the agency does and why; long but engrossing.
Summarised by Claude from recommending comments
The book the NSA tried to suppress -- with a startling new afterword on the Geoffrey Arthur Prime spy case. The National Security Agency is the largest, most secretive, and potentially most intrusive American intelligence agency. It dwarfs the CIA in budget, manpower, and influence. In the three decades it has existed, the NSA has demonstrated a shocking disregard for the law. Until now, the inner workings of this agency have eluded public scrutiny. In this remarkable tour de force of investigative reporting, however, James Bamford penetrates the NSA's vast network of power -- the acres of com
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In addition to The Shadow Factory he also wrote The Puzzle Palace and Body of Secrets. I'm not sure how much material is shared between the three books, or if they're meant to be read in any certain order, but I'm plowing through The Puzzle Palace now. In any case,…
on “The NSA slide you haven’t seen” ↗If anyone's interested in the history of this stuff and why government agencies have these expectations, I suggesting checking out The Puzzle Palace from James Bamford https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Puzzle_Palace https://www.amazon.com/Puzzle-Palace-National-Intelligence-O... After reading that book and getting a better sense of the scope of…
on “Facebook Tells Barr It Won’t Open Up Encrypted Messages” ↗…supercomputers to fill a football field. I'm sure their new data center in Utah will be greatly enlarging their capabilities. I'd suggest you read James Bamford's three books on the NSA for further insight. (The Puzzle Palace, Body of Secrets, and The Shadow Factory.) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Bamford#Books
on “Show HN: Hide Secret Messages In Facebook Photos With My Chrome Extension” ↗"wait, did people not think this was happening?" There is a very interesting book called The Puzzle Palace, about the early history of the NSA and its forerunners. The telegraph system had ATT cooperating with the government to let them have a copy of everything. This is before telephones. I always assumed…
on “Stellar Wind (code name)” ↗The Puzzle Palace and Bamford's other books are among the best about the NSA. His Wired article on Connecting the dots on PRISM, Phone Surveillance, and the NSA's Massive Data Center has his most recent thoughts -- http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2013/06/nsa-prism-verizon-s...
on “I am James Bamford, one of the journalists investigating the NSA. AMA.” ↗…encryption algorithms in wide use that were contributed to by the NSA. "Who really thought they'd go to US service and hardware companies and ask them to implement backdoors" The fascinating book The Puzzle Palace, from 1982, describes the precursors to the NSA setting up shop in telegraph offices and copying all traffic with the collusion of the new industry. None of this is new, and none of it is in the least…
on “The NSA Reportedly Has Total Access To The Apple iPhone” ↗I just started Bamford's The Puzzle Palace a couple of days ago. I'm only about 1/4 of the way through, but it's extremely interesting already. From what I've already seen, I'd have no problem recommending it to other HN readers who are interested…
on “The history of NSA spying, from telegrams to email” ↗Puzzle Palace is excellent. Specifically relating to the recent revelations, this book was where I learned of the NSA's "vacuum cleaner" approach, in which all available messages are collected -- in this case, it…
on “The NSA slide you haven’t seen” ↗…haughty, but I think it's a pretty common usage. Another reason I'm surprised at all the surprise is that I never studied cryptography, computer science, or the history of spy agencies systematically. The Puzzle Palace was a popular book, widely read, and I learned about NSA involvement in academic cryptography research by accident while studying up on numerical algorithms for physics simulations.
on “The NSA Reportedly Has Total Access To The Apple iPhone” ↗There are some good descriptions of telegraph-era government surveillance arrangements in Bamford's The Puzzle Palace (1983). Also Carlisle's Encyclopedia of Intelligence and Counterintelligence (2015). And for fun, see Yardley's The American Black Chamber (1931). Edit: And see http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2013/12/82-years...…
on “Government surveillance is as old as the telegraph” ↗…you're really interested in the subject of the NSA's history, and what it does, James Bamford's work is pretty interesting. Very dry books, tinged with his politics (more so Body of Secrets [1] than the Puzzle Palace [0]), but interesting none-the-less. [0] The Puzzle Palace http://www.amazon.com/Puzzle-Palace-National-Intelligence-Or.... [1] Body of Secrets http://www.amazon.com/Body-Secrets-Ultra-Secret-National-Sec....…
on “Why NSA Surveillance Scares Me” ↗NKW gave a nice summary of some recent actions. For more historical examples, I highly suggest any of James Bamford's excellent books on the NSA. _The Puzzle Palace_ is a massive tomb, but a very good read. I haven't had a chance to read _Shadow Factory_ yet, but it is in my pile.
on “A Backdoor in Skype for Mac OS X” ↗Dark Territory, by Fred Kaplan. Same topic as this thread. Also either Puzzle Palace or Body of Secrets by James Bamford. Topic: NSA.
on “NSA Official: We Need to Prepare for the Future of War” ↗…some classified program exists is one thing. Knowing technical details, capabilities, missions, targeting, is a whole nother. One can read about such black programs from a number of sources, Bamford's Puzzle Palace is one. Sontag's Blind Man's Bluff is another. You can also learn about such things from books and newspaper articles about people who revealed secret information to the Soviet Union, Chris Boyce, Aldrich…
on “Declassifying JUMPSEAT: an American pioneer in space” ↗I'd recommend Puzzle Palace by James Bamford.
on “The NSA Is Building the Country’s Biggest Spy Center (Watch What You Say)” ↗