[11724] in cryptography@c2.net mail archive
Re: unforgeable optical tokens?
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (eli+@zimbs4.srv.cs.cmu.edu)
Sat Sep 21 20:15:51 2002
To: crypto list <cryptography@wasabisystems.com>
Date: Sat, 21 Sep 2002 20:12:37 -0400 (EDT)
In-Reply-To: <15756.33529.61582.272688@cabernet.nelson.monkey.org> from "Nelson Minar" at Sep 21, 2002 07:32:25 AM
Reply-To: eli+@cs.cmu.edu
From: eli+@zimbs4.srv.cs.cmu.edu
I said:
>I can't dig up the memory, but I think I heard of a similar idea --
>random structure in transparent solid, difficult to copy -- used in
>some kind of tag or seal for nuclear security. Can anyone remind me
>what this might have been?
Someone suggested in personal mail I look at the Slashdot discussion.
Thanks. A couple of people there mention its use for tamper-evident
tags or seals or both (nobody seems too certain). Google tells me the
DOD has entire conferences on seals, which I guess makes perfect
sense, and I imagine the details would be in there somewhere.
I looked at Ravikanth's dissertation, but it gave no direct reference
to this work. It did reference "quantum subway tokens" and a recent
patent which used the random-solid idea; possibly the nuclear stuff
was assumed as prior work to those. Putting this in the framework of
cryptography (as "physical one-way functions", etc.) seems to be one
of this thesis' contributions.
--
Eli Brandt | eli+@cs.cmu.edu | http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~eli/
(finished Ph.D., woohoo; looking for good work in the Seattle area)
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