Re: Thoughts on the NSA's correction to SHA

[Duncan Frissell <frissell@panix.com>]

On Thu, 23 Jun 1994, Hal wrote:

> I know that my own interest in crypto can largely be traced to the
> Scientific American column by Martin Gardner in which he introduced
> the RSA system (along with the famous RSA-129 number which was just
> factored).  PK crypto combines simplicity with surprise to produce

I was one of the 10,000 people who ordered a free copy of "A proposal for 
a Public Key Encryption System" from MIT as a result of that column.  It 
certainly guarranteed wide dissemination of the ideas.  

The real mistake that the NSA made was writing that "Publish and We'll 
Throw You in Jail" letter to RSA.  Good publicity generator.

DCF

"Got to find my copy of that paper somewhere..."