Although traffic analysis, tempest attacks, viruses and Trojan horses are all useful techniques for gathering information, cryptanalysts realize that their real goal is to find a way of eracking the RSA cipher, the cornerstone of modern encryption. The RSA cipher is used to protect the most important military, diplomatic, commercial and criminal communications - exactly the messages that intelligence gathering organizations want to decipher. If they are to challenge strong RSA encryption, cryptanalysts will need to make a major theoretical or technological breakthrough.
—The Code Book,
Simon Singh
What is the author's purpose in writing this paragraph?
to persuade readers to become cryptanalysts for the
US government
to inform readers that many people have great motivation to decode the RSA cipher
• to entertain readers by making them feel frustration with the RSA cipher
to inform readers about ways cryptanalysts can read their messages