Denning's Geo-crypto

[John Young]

Time Magazine, November 26, 2001:

Denning's pioneering a new field she calls geo-encryption.
Working with industry, Denning has developed a way to keep
information undecipherable until it reaches its location, as
determined by GPS satellites. Move studios, for example,
have been afraid to release films digitally for the same reasons
record companies hate Napster: once loose on the Internet,
there's little to stop someone from posting the latest blockbuster
DVD on the Web for all to see and download. With Denning's
system, however, only subscribers in specified locations --
such as movie theaters -- would be able to unscramble the
data. The technology works as well for national security
as it does for Harry Potter. Coded messages that the State
Department sends to its embassies, for example, could only
be deciphered in the embassy buildings themselves, greatly
reducing the risk of interception.

For now, Denning says, terrorists "may want to bring down
the power grid or the finance system, but it's still easier to
blow up a building." If she's right, it's due in large part to her.