Security Watch | Matt Hines » Happy 30th, Public Key Crypto!!

October 27, 2006 | Comments: (0)

Happy 30th, Public Key Crypto!!

TAGS: Security

Is this a low-key (crypto key?) birthday or what?

I let my cwna class go a tad early last night so I could get over to the very cool Computer History Museum in Mountain View, CA to join in on the birthday celebration.

If you've never a chance to visit the Computer History Museum, his tech venue is kinda south of the heart of Silicon Valley and was a very apropos locale for the festivities.

While I missed the networking and refreshments even after (only slightly) speeding down 101, I got to the CHM just in time to see the start of the panel presentation.

MC'd by John Markoff, senior writer of the New York Times, the panel was definitely a who's who of cryptography research and invention, as were many members of the crowd that showed up to share in the event.

Starting from the left on the panel was:

Whitfield Diffie, PhD, Cryptographer, Chief Security Officer, Sun Microsystems

Martin Hellman, PhD, Cryptographer, Professor Emeritus of Electrical Engineering, Stanford

Brian Snow, NSA Technical Director, Information Assurance Directorate (Retired in 2006)

Jim Bidzos, Former CEO of RSA and Founder of VeriSign

Ray Ozzie, Microsoft Corp’s Chief Software Architect

Dan Boneh, PhD, Cryptographer, and Stanford Professor of Computer Science

And the panel was moderated by Steven Levy, author and senior editor of Newsweek.

I didn't know what to expect from the event, but what transpired was a nice overview of the past, present and future of cryptography and how crypto supports Internet commerce and the many other ways we use (and need) it today.

The panel discussion was low key, but interesting, informative and, surprisingly, quite funny at many points in the conversation.

Take a look at the pictures from the event here and take a listen to the audio here. I'm told that the video will be available soon and I'll post it here as well.

If you're a newcomer to crypto (hint to my past and present students) or an old-timer to the space, I think you'll like listening to this insightful conversation and bundle of stories about the growing field of encryption.

Update: Photos, Video, a Podcast and a Slide PDF are all posted and available now at www.30yearsofPKC.com from the 30 Years of Public Key Cryptography (PKC) event.

Image from http://www.dockwalker.com/article/146/birthday-hat

Posted by Victor R. Garza on October 27, 2006 12:50 PM

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