Turing Award Winner: NSA, Public Key Cryptography, Crypto Wars | Martin Hellman

<p>Martin Hellman is a Turing Award winner who helped to invent public-key cryptography against the NSA&#39;s wishes. I interviewed him all about his work and why it broke the law at the time.</p><p><br></p><p>• My ergonomic keyboard project I mentioned, you can follow along here: https://read.compose.llc/</p><p>• The Kickstarter page for it: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/ryanlpeterman/compose-simple-ergonomics-beautifully-done</p><p><br></p><p>Podcast links:</p><p><br></p><p>• YouTube: https://youtu.be/AZLOETBCQM4</p><p>• Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-peterman-pod/id1777363835</p><p>• Transcript: https://www.developing.dev/p/turing-award-winner-nsa-public-key</p><p><br></p><p>Thank you to this episode&#39;s sponsor for supporting my work:</p><p><br></p><p>• WorkOS: makes your app Enterprise Ready with easy to use APIs to add SSO, SCIM, RBAC, and more in just a few lines of code, check them out at https://workos.com/</p><p><br></p><p>Timestamps:</p><p><br></p><p>(00:00) Intro</p><p>(00:34) Why his work broke the law</p><p>(08:39) How people did encryption before</p><p>(18:51) The crypto wars</p><p>(26:22) The story behind Diffie Hellman key exchange</p><p>(36:48) Signatures vs key exchange</p><p>(43:05) RSA patent wars</p><p>(48:08) Why inventions happen at similar times</p><p>(50:29) What he worked on after cryptography</p><p>(57:31) His thoughts on death</p><p>(59:40) Advice for his younger self</p><p>(01:00:45) Outro</p><p><br></p><p>Where to find Martin:</p><p><br></p><p>• Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martin_Hellman</p><p>• Website: https://ee.stanford.edu/~hellman/</p><p><br></p><p>Where to find Ryan:</p><p><br></p><p>• Newsletter: https://www.developing.dev/</p><p>• X/Twitter: https://x.com/ryanlpeterman</p><p>• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ryanlpeterman/</p><p>• Threads: https://www.threads.com/@ryanlpeterman</p><p>• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ryanlpeterman</p><p>• TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@ryanlpeterman</p><p><br></p><p>Referenced in this episode:</p><p><br></p><p>• Martin Hellman&#39;s “The Evolution of Public Key Cryptography”: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tev3tVzH91s</p><p>• Keys Under Doormats: https://cacm.acm.org/opinion/keys-under-doormats/</p><p>• Cryptography&#39;s Role in Securing the Information Society (CRISIS report): https://nap.nationalacademies.org/catalog/5131/cryptographys-role-in-securing-the-information-society</p><p>• Secure Communications Over Insecure Channels: https://doi.org/10.1145/359460.359473</p><p>• New Directions in Cryptography: https://doi.org/10.1109/TIT.1976.1055638</p>