Find me a hash

[Harald Hanche-Olsen]

Susan Landau has an article in the upcoming March issue of Notices of
the AMS: "Find me a hash."

There is a short preview of the article here:

  http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2006-02/ams-dsa020106.php

it even includes a "non-public" (whatever that means) link to the
paper itself:

  http://www.ams.org/staff/jackson/fea-landau.pdf

Readers of the cryptography list may not learn anything new from it,
but it seems like a nice summary of the present state of affairs.
The article opens by calling hash function the duct tape of
cryptography, and ends with these words:

  What is the theory of hash functions? It is not often that
  mathematicians are asked to develop a theory for duct tape, but
  there is a clear and present need to do so now for cryptographic
  hash functions.

- Harald

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