Breaking the unbreakable: addressing the need for cryptanalysis
Abstract: Since Stohl's The Cuckoo's Egg (1989), there has been a growing interest in network security (e.g., Schnier's Secrets and Lies) and cryptography (Singh's The Code Book). Two remarkable features of Stohl's tale were the complete absence of network-knowledgeable authorities in police an intelligence communities and the cavalier attitude of university system administrators who did not know the easy access that hackers had to their mainframe computers. The recent work on cryptography indicates both that we have come a long way since Stohl and that there is much yet to do to establish adequate network security. However, there is general agreement that public key cryptography has given us "unbreakable" codes and that this is a good thing. Schnier's history would suggest that restoring balance between code-making and code-breaking is important in protecting against conspiracies of many sorts. I propose to suggest ways to address the need for better cryptanalysis in the future.
Presider: William Moore, Southern University