At 07:00 AM 9/30/96 -0700, thad@hammerhead.com (Thaddeus J. Beier) wrote:

I saw this

...

...

I am looking for one or more people (or firms) who are qualified to perform world class cryptanalysis work. Please send mail to me at joswald1@msn.com call in the U.S. at +1 408.479.7874

Jack Oswald

and then this...

[news about Grady Ward, and the Scientology cult's attempt to decrypt his files]

The trial is happening in San Jose, and I wouldn't be at all surprised if the attempted cryptanalysis is happening there, too. They've been working at it for a few months now.

Not necessarily. The answering machine at the phone number listed mentions "RPK" as the company, and this company has non-Grady reasons for looking for these skills.

From their web page at http://crypto.swdev.co.nz/: "The RPK public key cryptosystem provides industrial-strength public key cryptography that's available worldwide. "

"You'll find full technical information, free evaluation software and development tools, and details of our SafeCracker Challenge program where you can earn a $$$ REWARD $$$ while trying to put us out of business! " They could just be looking for people to test their own stuff.