[Cryptography] nuclear arming codes

[Charles Jackson]

On Fri, Jan 3, 2014 at 8:50 AM, Jerry Leichter <leichter at lrw.com> wrote:

> Use of public key cryptography for this kind of thing was in common public
> discussion when RSA first gained broad use.  Was it just an obvious
> application, given the confluence of the invention of public key and the
> wide discussions surrounding the negotiations on test bans at the time, or
> did something of the secret work actually slip out?


There's an interview with Simmons somewhere (I cannot find it now), where
he recounts being aware of the PK codes and having thought about their
application to nuclear test telemetry before the Hellman/Diffie paper
(maybe RSA report).  When he saw an unclassified description of PK codes,
he immediately sat down and wrote up his thoughts---and could base them on
unclassified sources.


Chuck



-- 

Chuck

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Charles L. Jackson

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