BRITISH SOCIETY FOR THE HISTORY OF MATHEMATICS
http://www.dcs.warwick.ac.uk/bshm/
In December 1997 there appeared on the website of the
Communications-Electronics Security Group (CESG), part of the (British)
Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ), a paper dated 1970 and
describing the discovery, or invention, of the basic principles of what the
author called Non-secret Encryption. Under the name of Public Key
Cryptography, this discovery had been published by two American academics,
in the normal way, in a refereed journal, in 1976.
Among historians, there can be no dispute about priority. Priority is
determined by publication and consequently rests with the American group.
However, the coincidences in time call for historical explanation.
One of the protagonists from CESG gave an account of the GCHQ group's
work at the British Society for the History of Mathematics conference on
the history of cryptography last June. The speaker at the lecture on 29
April is protagonist and sleuth, and proposes to tell both sides of the
story.
J. V. Field (President, British Society for the History of Mathematics)
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BRITISH SOCIETY FOR THE HISTORY OF MATHEMATICS
http://www.dcs.warwick.ac.uk/bshm/
and the
DEPARTMENT OF COMPUTER SCIENCE, UNIVERSITY COLLEGE, LONDON
L E C T U R E
Thursday 29 April 1999 at 1730
in the Gustave Tuck Lecture Theatre, University College, London
DR WHITFIELD DIFFIE
Sun Microsystems, California, U. S. A.
"NON-SECRET ENCRYPTION AND PUBLIC KEY CRYPTOGRAPHY"
In a remarkable case of 'scientific parallelism', a secret British group
and a public American group, working entirely independently, made very
similar discoveries during the early 1970s. The discovery was a
revolutionary new form of cryptography. What was 'Non-secret Encryption'
to the British and 'Public Key Cryptography' to the Americans, is at the
heart of internet commerce and is achieving wide use throughout
telecommunication.
The speaker, whose interests are both historical and scientific, was a
participant in the American endeavour and has studied the work of the
British team since the early 1980s.
Join us for a talk that will range from reflections on the personal
experience of discovery to an examination of the techniques developed and
analysis of the differences in thinking of the two groups.
Further details on the BSHM web site and from J. V. Field, Dept of History
of Art, Birkbeck College, 43 Gordon Square, London WC1H 0PD, fax and voice
messages 0171.736.9198; email [log in to unmask]
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