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A techno-thriller novel by Dan Brown called Digital Fortress (1998) talks about the government’s supercomputer, TRANSLTR, which has been used to violate Americans’ privacy rights. The book also explores themes of government surveillance and the flow of individuals’ private data.

A code is presented by the National Security Agency to its cryptographer, Susan Fletcher. The cryptographer discovers that the code was created by an ex-NSA operative who has become disillusioned with the agency’s actions and decides to release it into public hands unless he receives a response from them. In order to prevent this, they plan on stopping him before he can do so.

Tankado was found dead in Seville, Spain. It looked like a heart attack, but the NSA suspected that it was murder. They asked David Becker to go investigate because Tankado had given him something before he died. The ring contained a code that would unlock Digital Fortress and the NSA wanted it back. While investigating, Becker learned that Tankado gave away his ring just before he died. He talked to several people about this and one of them turned out to be an assassin who killed all of those people by shooting them in the head with a gun equipped with a silencer (Hulohot).

Tokugen Numataka makes a series of phone calls to North Dakota, where he learns that the state hired Hulohot to assassinate Tankado so they could release the algorithm without any struggle. Fletcher investigates and deduces that Greg Hale is actually working for North Dakota.

Meanwhile, an NSA technician named Phil Chartrukian discovers the Digital Fortress virus and tries to figure out whether Strathmore is complicit in allowing it into the NSA’s Gauntlet. He also believes that Hale killed him because they were both inside TRANSLTR when he was pushed off of a walkway, damaging its cooling system. On interrogation, Hale insists that Strathmore did this to Chartrukian.

Hale, a former NSA agent, is being held hostage by Strathmore, who was also an NSA employee. Hale explains that he had been hired to surveil Strathmore and found out about the latter’s plan to spy on his company. This caused him to send Tankado an email about it in order to save his own job. He then killed Tankado and made it look like a suicide because of the evidence against him. Fletcher finds out that Tankado and North Dakota are actually one person: Ensei Tankado (NDAKOTA). She realizes that “Tankado” is an anagram for “TANKADO”. Strathmore reveals himself as the killer after botching up Hale’s suicide attempt so he could frame him for Chartrukian’s murder. Becker tracks down Hulohot, whom Strathmore had hired in order to kill Becker; however, Hulohot kills himself before being questioned by police officers sent by Fletcher.

The remainder of the book tells the story from Strathmore’s point of view. He was in love with Fletcher, who he hoped would fall for him when he unlocked Digital Fortress. It turns out that his plan backfired because the virus destroyed TRANSLTR and exposed government secrets to everyone with a computer. He committed suicide by standing next to it as it exploded. Just before this happened, Becker discovered that 3 was the password to unlock Digital Fortress, which is a reference to bombs that killed Tankado’s mother and crippled him in an earlier attack on America. The NSA allowed Becker back into America where he reunited with Fletcher after she told him about her involvement in Tankado’s death

The crux of “Digital Fortress” is that one man’s ego and insecurities are entangled with his professional life. This fact becomes a case against government interference in Americans’ constitutional rights.