At 12:34 AM 1/25/96, Rich Salz wrote:

Is there any indication that the NSA knew about public-key before it entered the open literature?

I've asked Whit Diffie about this issue more than once. He, too, is very interested in the real answer to this. In the Gus Simmons book, there are cryptic (sorry) references to what the NSA may have known. And certainly Don Coppersmith was no slouch, having been a Putnam winner in the early 70s (I was invited to take the Putnam about that time, and was so overwhelmed and unprepared--especially being that I was studying physics then--that I just gave up and left the room!). On the other hand, the comments are sufficiently elliptical that it may just be the NSA putting the best face on an embarrassing development. At Crypto '88, I put this question to NSA cryptographer Brian Snow. He just played the Cheshire cat. Which told me nothing. A friend of mine who was an active amateur cryptographer in the 1970s pointed out to me--much later--that there were NSA boxes used on ships and similar remote outposts which appeared to have no provision for providing keying material, suggesting a sealed-box public-key system. He was just speculating, of course. Here's to hoping the Bamford-Madsen 2nd edition sheds more light on this subject. I can't say I'll be surprised to learn that NSA was as surprised as the rest of us. --Tim Boycott espionage-enabled software! We got computers, we're tapping phone lines, we know that that ain't allowed. ---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---- Timothy C. May | Crypto Anarchy: encryption, digital money, tcmay@got.net 408-728-0152 | anonymous networks, digital pseudonyms, zero W.A.S.T.E.: Corralitos, CA | knowledge, reputations, information markets, Higher Power: 2^756839 - 1 | black markets, collapse of governments. "National borders aren't even speed bumps on the information superhighway."