Do Cryptographers burn?

[Greg Rose]

At 10:34 AM 4/3/2004 +0200, Hadmut Danisch wrote:
>Do Cryptographers burn?
>Today's cryptography is to a certain degree
>based on trusting a handful of experts, maybe the world's top 100
>(300? 1000?) in cryptography.
>Does this require those people to be trustworthy?

Basically, the cryptographers you refer to have risen to where they are 
through a process of academic training that praises honesty, hard work, and 
correct results. For them to suddenly cross some undrawn and unadvertised 
line in the sand and start faking or suppressing results, all at the same 
place and time, without a single one of them going for the glory of 
publishing "The Factoring Paper", is literally incredible.

Besides, people who can't remember to wear matching socks don't make good 
conspirators ;-).

So, no, you don't have to trust all of them, just that statistically some 
of them will slip occasionally, and the house of cards would fall down. 
Therefore there is no house of cards.

Greg.

Greg Rose                                       INTERNET: ggr at qualcomm.com
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