Stanford EE Computer Systems Colloquium

4:30 PM, Wednesday, Feb 28, 2018
NEC Auditorium, Gates Computer Science Building Room B3
http://ee380.stanford.edu

The Evolution of Public Key Cryptography

Martin E. Hellman
Stanford University (EE Emeritis)

About the talk:

While public key cryptography is seen as revolutionary, after this talk you might wonder why it took Whit Diffie, Ralph Merkle and Hellman so long to discover it. This talk also highlights the contributions of some unsung (or "under-sung") heroes: Ralph Merkle, John Gill, Stephen Pohlig, Richard Schroeppel, Loren Kohnfelder, and researchers at GCHQ (Ellis, Cocks, and Williamson).

Resources and Reading Materials

M. E. Hellman, Cybersecurity, Nuclear Security, Alan Turing, and Illogical Logic , Communications of the ACM, Vol. 60, No. 12, pp. 52-59, December 2017. This is a written version of Martin Hellman's ACM Turing Lecture ( video of full lecture ) and was accompanied by a short (6 minute) video.

Other materials and hard to find references can be found on Martin Hellman's Stanford website, http://www-ee.stanford.edu/~hellman/ .

Slides:

Download the slides for this presentation in PDF or PowerPoint format:   [PDF]   [PPTX]

About the speaker:

[speaker photo] Martin E. Hellman is Professor Emeritus of Electrical Engineering at Stanford University and is affiliated with the university's Center for International Security and Cooperation (CISAC). His recent technical work has focused on bringing a risk informed framework to a potential failure of nuclear deterrence and then using that approach to find surprising ways to reduce the risk. His earlier work included co-inventing public key cryptography, the technology that underlies the secure portion of the Internet. His many honors include election to the National Academy of Engineering and receiving (jointly with his colleague Whit Diffie) the million dollar ACM Turing Award, the top prize in computer science. His most recent project is a book, jointly written with his wife of fifty years, "A New Map for Relationships: Creating True Love at Home & Peace on the Planet," that provides a "unified field theory" of peace by illuminating the connections between nuclear war, conventional war, interpersonal war, and war within our own psyches.

Contact information:

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