Modern-day code-breaking is immensely more challenging than it was in the Bletchley Park era during the Second World War, when the capture of German code books enabled British mathematicians such as Alan Turing to read vital enemy communications. Today’s encryption software automatically encodes data, making it difficult to decipher without outside assistance. To this end most Western spy agencies have formed close working relationships with many of the world’s leading internet providers, helping them to monitor the communications of hostile governments and organisations. In the past, this close-knit relationship has enabled Western surveillance organisations such as the NSA and GCHQ to provide vital intelligence that has helped to disrupt al-Qaeda plots and support efforts by Nato forces to defeat the Taliban in Afghanistan, as well as providing vital information about the military ambitions of emerging powers such as China and India.