Hellman, Martin

Born on October 2, 1945 in New York State, Martin Hellman graduated from the Bronx High School of Science. He received a bachelor 's degree from New York University in 1966 , a master 's degree from Stanford University in 1967 , all in electrical engineering. From 1968 to 1969 he worked at the Watson Research Center IBM , where he met with Horst Feistel . From 1969 to 1971 he was an assistant professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology . In 1971 he returned to Stanford as a professor , where he was engaged in research until 1996 , becoming an Honorary Professor .

Nuclear Threat Reduction

Hellman has been active in the international security study since 1985 . His current project is to reduce the nuclear threat. In particular, Hellman is exploring the probabilities and risks associated with nuclear weapons and encouraging further international research in this area. His website http://NuclearRisk.org has been endorsed by a number of prominent individuals, including former director of the National Security Agency , honorary president of Stanford University ^{[by whom? ]} and two Nobel laureates ^{[by whom? ]} .

Work in the field of cryptography

Hellman showed great interest in David Kahn 's book The Codebreakers , released in 1967 . Later, in January 1969, David Kahn attended the IEEE International Symposium on Information Theory . From 1968 to 1969, Hellman worked at the Watson Research Center IBM in Yorktown Heights, New York. One of Hellman's colleagues was Horst Feistel , who was then working on government research in cryptography at IBM. At the end of the work, a data encryption standard ( DES ) was obtained in 1975 . In 1970 , as an assistant professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology , Hellman received a copy of the 1949 work of the then little-known Claude Shannon from related to research in the field of cryptography chosen by Hellman.

Over the next few years, Hellman devoted time to more familiar areas of information theory. Despite this, he also conducted research on cryptography. However, in order to conduct further research, it was necessary to finance such a difficultly classified science as cryptography.

In the early 70s, Hellman, expressing interest in the problem of cryptography and the desire to work on creating new secure systems for commercial needs, was criticized by colleagues. They argued that perhaps the National Security Agency , which has a multi-million dollar budget, could have had the results of such studies by then, and even if Hellman had managed to do something new, the National Security Agency would have classified the data and Hellman himself would have received nothing in return. Hellman still insisted. Later, he said that “a muse for a fool” made him commit such an act. Hellman was willing to take the risk even if he looked stupid, but ultimately became one of the inventors of public key encryption . Hellman had already foreseen that electronic transfers of funds from one bank to another would entail a huge data encryption problem.

Public Key Encryption

Public key encryption uses an information property that allows you to create secure communication channels over the Internet . The main feature of public key encryption is the use of two keys for each user, the public key and the private one, where only the private key can decrypt the message encrypted with the public key. Each key is almost impossible to recognize, and if the keys are long enough, then the method cannot be cracked. The elegant public key encryption structure allows for secure communication systems for distributed participants. The technology is at the core of the Public Key Infrastructure (PKI) , and the industry standard is based on the RSA encryption algorithm .

The first researchers to discover and publish the concept of public key encryption were Whitfield Diffie and Martin Hellman from Stanford University , and Ralph Merkle from the University of California at Berkeley . As often happens in the scientific world, two groups worked independently on the same problem - Diffie and Hellman on public-key cryptography , and Merkl - on distributing keys among users. When they learned about each other's work, they realized that interaction would benefit everyone. According to Hellman: “Each of us was a key part of the puzzle. This allowed us to make a discovery. ”

The work of Hellman and Whitfield Diffie was published in 1976 under the title New Trends in Cryptography . It presented a radically new approach to the distribution of cryptographic keys with links to the works of Ralph Merkle , thereby cryptography found a solution to one of the fundamental problems. This document talks about the key concepts of public key encryption, including the production of digital signatures , and provides some implementation examples. So the Diffie-Hellman algorithm appeared . The article entailed the immediate development of a new class of encryption algorithms, asymmetric key algorithms . Hellman and Whitfield Diffie were awarded by the Marconi Society in 2000 for their work on public key cryptography and for helping cryptography become an independent branch of science.

Hellman, like Whitfield Diffie and Ralph Merkle , published articles that the National Security Agency classified as secret. There was even a threat that Hellman and his colleagues could be held accountable under the International Arms Trade Rules (ITAR) , as cryptographic technical literature was considered a weapon of war according to ITAR.

According to current estimates, about 10 billion devices use public key encryption. Whitfield Diffie , Martin Hellman, and Ralph Merkle later received US Patent 4,200,770 for their method of public key exchange.

Computer Privacy Conference

For a long time, Hellman participated in the computer privacy conference, starting with the development of the DES encryption algorithm in 1975 and ending with the service (1994-1996) at the National Research Council of the Committee for the Study of National Cryptographic Policy. Hellman's key recommendations were subsequently implemented.

• 1964 . Election of Eta Kappa Nu (ΗΚΝ) Honorary National Society of Radio Engineering
• 1964 . Election of the Honorary National Society of Radio Engineering in the Tau Beta Pi (ΤΒΠ)
• 1966 . Arnold Award, New York University of Electrical Engineering
• 1966 - 68 . Senior Member of the National Science Foundation
• 1966 . First Prize for Second Place at the IEEE Student Competition
• 1966 . Honorable mention in the Eta Kappa Nu Competition for the title “Most Outstanding Student Electrical Engineering in the USA”
• 1978 . California State Psychological Association Award for Outstanding Contribution to Consumer Protection
• 1978 . Prize for the best article (New Trends in Cryptography, with Whitfield Diffie ), published in the previous two years by the IEEE Information Theory Group
• 1980 . Election of IEEE “for Contribution to Cryptography”
• 1981 . 1979 Donald G. Fink Distinguished Textbook or Review Prize IEEE (Privacy and Authentication: An Introduction to Cryptography, with Whitfield Diffie )
• 1984 . IEEE 100th Anniversary Medal
• 1987 . Stanford University Teaching Award Tau Beta Pi (ΤΒΠ)
• 1987 . Award to Outstanding Professor from the Stanford Society of Black Scientists and Engineers
• 1989 . Award to Distinguished Professor from the Stanford Chicano Society and Hispanic Engineers
• 1994 . EFF Pioneer Award from Electronic Frontier Foundation
• 1996 . Award from the National Security of Computer Systems
• 1997 . Louis Levy Medal of the Franklin Institute
• 1997 . Canellakis Award
• 1998 . Member of the International Engineering Consortium
• 1998 . IEEE Information Theory Society Golden Anniversary Award
• 1999 . IEEE Koji Kobayashi Computer and Communications Award
• 2000 . Marconi Award of the International Marconi Community
• 2002 . Elected to the National Academy of Sciences "for his contribution to the theory and practice of cryptography"
• 2006 . Elected member of the International Association for Cryptographic Research "For the invention of public key cryptography and for innovative research in the field of open cryptography"
• 2010 . Richard Hamming IEEE Medal "For the invention of public-key cryptography and its use in protecting communications"
• 2011 . Elected a member of the Computer Museum .
• 2011 . Immortalized in the National Inventors Hall of Fame
• 2015 . Turing Award .

• Diffie-Hellman Algorithm