[148887] in cryptography@c2.net mail archive
Re: [Cryptography] nuclear arming codes
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (John Gilmore)
Fri Jan 3 01:20:55 2014
X-Original-To: cryptography@metzdowd.com
To: Jonathan Thornburg <jthorn@astro.indiana.edu>
In-reply-to: <alpine.BSO.2.03.1401021143190.3310@astro.indiana.edu>
Date: Thu, 02 Jan 2014 22:01:49 -0800
From: John Gilmore <gnu@toad.com>
Cc: Alan Braggins <alan.braggins@gmail.com>, cryptography@metzdowd.com
Errors-To: cryptography-bounces+crypto.discuss=bloom-picayune.mit.edu@metzdowd.com
> The most detailed and authoritative (public) version is probably
> http://tomnichols.net/blog/2013/12/20/update-were-u-s-nuclear-codes-set-to-zero-bruce-blair-responds/
By the way, this topic IS relevant to cryptography. Gustavus Simmons,
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gustavus_Simmons , cryptographer at
Sandia Labs and co-founder of the IACR, was involved in the creation
of the Permissive Action Links (PALs) that prevent the bombs from
arming unless they receive the right launch code.
In fact there's an allegation that public-key crypto was invented
for the PALs, before the Stanford crowd did it:
http://csl.illinois.edu/news/nuclear-weapons-permissive-action-links-and-history-public-key-cryptography
John
PS: Gus Simmons was also key to making the test-ban treaties work, by
providing cryptographic protocols that allowed sensors to be placed in
each others' countries, that would report back only what the treaty
allowed them to report, with no covert channels for additional
information, and verification that the sensor packages had not been
tampered with.
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