This idea was so outrageous …

This idea was so outrageous …

A few years ago, I visited GCHQ, and it was one of the most wonderful trips of my life. It was there I could feel the cipher ghosts of the past, and of the amazing work that had been done to break and create secure ciphers. I marvelled at the cipher machines of the past, and in the human intellect that must have gone into their creation.

The most perfect of machines …

So, imagine you have invented the most perfect machine. This machine addresses all of the problems of every other machine that was ever created, and was based on a new method that you had come up with. You would, of course, by proud of your work, and want to share in the praise that you would rightly receive.

And, now imagine, that this machine is a new cybersecurity method that was almost perfect in its creation. It would address many of the existing problems online security, and make sure that everyone's online identity was trusted and that you didn’t go to untrusted sites. It would also be one which allowed you to communicate securely, even though others were listening. Also, it would allow you to create an almost non-forgeable signature for all your transactions. That “machine” is public-key encryption, and (possibly) one of the greatest advancements in computer science, ever. It is certainly up there with the greats of communication theory, Von Nuemann architecture and machine learning. With the advent of public-key encryption, for the first time in human history, we could start to communicate with others without the fear of others listening in on our communications.

So who invented this amazing machine?

And, so who invented it? Well, Diffie, Hellman and Merkle proposed that it could exist, and it was then up to Rivest, Shamir and Adleman to create an actual version of it that worked. And, so, end of story!

But, no! That’s not the full story. Clifford Cocks, James Ellis, and Malcolm Williamson at GCHQ had also proposed and had found the solution to public key encryption before the others. And, while Diffie and Hellman published their work in 1976, and Rivest, Shamir and Adleman published in 1977, the GCHQ team were working on their method at the start of the 1970s. Unfortunately, their work was not disclosed at the time due to national security issues.

James, in fact, proposed the possibility of public key encryption in 1970, and then in 1973, came up with factoring system that created a public key method. Malcolm improved it in 1974, and then Clifford integrated it into a protocol that could be used in practice.

Now, we know of their work, and it has been further recognised by their admission into the Crytological Hall of Honor at the NSA (National Security Agency). Basically, in terms of cybersecurity, it would be equivalent to a musical Hall of Fame that only the likes of Bob Dylan or The Beatles would have entry to. At present, there are just 99 people admitted to the Crytological Hall of Honor, and the new ones make it 104.

With humbleness, Clifford Cocks has outlined:

“For this award, principal recognition should go to James Ellis for his truly original mind, and for having the idea that secure communication is possible without any primary exchange. At the time, this idea was so outrageous, but he showed how it might be done.”

Conclusions

And, so, in cybersecurity, and in protecting our citizens, we all stand on their shoulders. The amazingness of the human brain will also find new ways to solve our existing problems, and build worlds which are currently beyond our imagination. Public key encryption has gone on to become a thorn in the side of law enforcement and defence agencies, but that’s another story!