Re: NSA advanced knowledge

[tcmay@got.net (Timothy C. May)]

At 12:34 AM 1/25/96, Rich Salz wrote:
>Is there any indication that the NSA knew about public-key before
>it entered the open literature?

I've asked Whit Diffie about this issue more than once. He, too, is very
interested in the real answer to this.

In the Gus Simmons book, there are cryptic (sorry) references to what the
NSA may have known. And certainly Don Coppersmith was no slouch, having
been a Putnam winner in the early 70s (I was invited to take the Putnam
about that time, and was so overwhelmed and unprepared--especially being
that I was studying physics then--that I just gave up and left the room!).

On the other hand, the comments are sufficiently elliptical that it may
just be the NSA putting the best face on an embarrassing development.

At Crypto '88, I put this question to NSA cryptographer Brian Snow. He just
played the Cheshire cat. Which told me nothing.

A friend of mine who was an active amateur cryptographer in the 1970s
pointed out to me--much later--that there were NSA boxes used on ships and
similar remote outposts which appeared to have no provision for providing
keying material, suggesting a sealed-box public-key system. He was just
speculating, of course.

Here's to hoping the Bamford-Madsen 2nd edition sheds more light on this
subject. I can't say I'll be surprised to learn that NSA was as surprised
as the rest of us.

--Tim

Boycott espionage-enabled software!
We got computers, we're tapping phone lines, we know that that ain't allowed.
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Timothy C. May              | Crypto Anarchy: encryption, digital money,
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