Chapter 7 - 9 Summary

Strathmore tells Susan that he had received a phone call from Tankado the previous month. Tankado had called to warn Strathmore that he was perfecting an algorithm that could write unbreakable codes. He called his program Digital Fortress and told Strathmore that he would not release Digital Fortress if Strathmore would go public about TRANSLTR. Strathmore did not believe Tankado's claim, so Tankado posted a complimentary copy of his program on the Internet.

Tankado protected his creation by encrypting the file within itself. It is impossible to open Digital Fortress without Tankado's pass code. Strathmore shows Susan an article from a Japanese business newspaper announcing Tankado's plans to auction off his program to the highest bidder. Every computer software company in Japan is trying to break into the program and every second they cannot - the bidding price climbs.

The article...