This is a list of cryptographers.
Cryptography
Cryptography, or cryptology (from grc, , translit=kryptós "hidden, secret"; and ''graphein'', "to write", or ''-logia'', "study", respectively), is the practice and study of techniques for secure communication in the presence of adver ...
is the practice and study of techniques for
secure communication
Secure communication is when two entities are communicating and do not want a third party to listen in. For this to be the case, the entities need to communicate in a way that is unsusceptible to eavesdropping or interception. Secure communication ...
in the presence of third parties called
adversaries.
Pre twentieth century
*
Al-Khalil ibn Ahmad al-Farahidi
Abu ‘Abd ar-Raḥmān al-Khalīl ibn Aḥmad ibn ‘Amr ibn Tammām al-Farāhīdī al-Azdī al-Yaḥmadī ( ar, أبو عبدالرحمن الخليل بن أحمد الفراهيدي; 718 – 786 CE), known as Al-Farāhīdī, or Al-Khalīl, ...
: wrote a (now lost) book on cryptography titled the "''Book of Cryptographic Messages''".
*
Al-Kindi
Abū Yūsuf Yaʻqūb ibn ʼIsḥāq aṣ-Ṣabbāḥ al-Kindī (; ar, أبو يوسف يعقوب بن إسحاق الصبّاح الكندي; la, Alkindus; c. 801–873 AD) was an Arab Muslim philosopher, polymath, mathematician, physician ...
, 9th century
Arabic
Arabic (, ' ; , ' or ) is a Semitic languages, Semitic language spoken primarily across the Arab world.Semitic languages: an international handbook / edited by Stefan Weninger; in collaboration with Geoffrey Khan, Michael P. Streck, Janet C ...
polymath and originator of
frequency analysis
In cryptanalysis, frequency analysis (also known as counting letters) is the study of the frequency of letters or groups of letters in a ciphertext. The method is used as an aid to breaking classical ciphers.
Frequency analysis is based on t ...
.
*
Athanasius Kircher
Athanasius Kircher (2 May 1602 – 27 November 1680) was a German Jesuit scholar and polymath who published around 40 major works, most notably in the fields of comparative religion, geology, and medicine. Kircher has been compared to fe ...
, attempts to decipher crypted messages
*
Augustus the Younger, Duke of Brunswick-Lüneburg
Augustus II (10 April 1579 – 17 September 1666), called the Younger (german: August der Jüngere), a member of the House of Welf was Duke of Brunswick-Lüneburg. In the estate division of the House of Welf of 1635, he received the Principa ...
, wrote a standard book on cryptography
*
Ibn Wahshiyya
( ar, ابن وحشية), died , was a Nabataean (Aramaic-speaking, rural Iraqi) agriculturalist, toxicologist, and alchemist born in Qussīn, near Kufa in Iraq. He is the author of the '' Nabataean Agriculture'' (), an influential Arabic work ...
: published several cipher alphabets that were used to encrypt magic formulas.
*
John Dee
John Dee (13 July 1527 – 1608 or 1609) was an English mathematician, astronomer, astrologer, teacher, occultist, and alchemist. He was the court astronomer for, and advisor to, Elizabeth I, and spent much of his time on alchemy, divinatio ...
, wrote an occult book, which in fact was a cover for crypted text
*
Ibn 'Adlan: 13th-century cryptographer who made important contributions on the sample size of the frequency analysis.
*
Duke of Mantua
During its history as independent entity, Mantua had different rulers who governed on the city and the lands of Mantua from the Middle Ages to the early modern period.
From 970 to 1115, the Counts of Mantua were members of the House of Canoss ...
Francesco I Gonzaga
Portrait of Francesco I Gonzaga
Francesco I Gonzaga (1366 – 7 March 1407) was ruler of Mantua from 1382 to 1407. He was also a condottiero.
Succeeding his father Ludovico II Gonzaga in 1382, he led a policy of balance between the nearby ...
is the one who used the earliest example of homophonic
Substitution cipher
In cryptography, a substitution cipher is a method of encrypting in which units of plaintext are replaced with the ciphertext, in a defined manner, with the help of a key; the "units" may be single letters (the most common), pairs of letters, tri ...
in early 1400s.
*
Ibn al-Durayhim ʿAlī ibn Muḥammad Ibn al-Durayhim ( ar, علي بن محمد ابن الدريهم; 1312–1359/62 CE) was an Arab cryptologist who gave detailed descriptions of eight cipher systems that discussed substitution ciphers, leading to the earliest ...
: gave detailed descriptions of eight cipher systems that discussed substitution ciphers, leading to the earliest suggestion of a "tableau" of the kind that two centuries later became known as the "Vigenère table".
*
Ahmad al-Qalqashandi
Shihāb al-Dīn Abū 'l-Abbās Aḥmad ibn ‘Alī ibn Aḥmad ‘Abd Allāh al-Fazārī al-Shāfiʿī better known by the epithet al-Qalqashandī ( ar, شهاب الدين أحمد بن علي بن أحمد القلقشندي; 1355 or 1356 &ndash ...
: Author of ''Subh al-a 'sha'', a fourteen volume encyclopedia in Arabic, which included a section on cryptology. The list of ciphers in this work included both substitution and transposition, and for the first time, a cipher with multiple substitutions for each plaintext letter.
*
Charles Babbage
Charles Babbage (; 26 December 1791 – 18 October 1871) was an English polymath. A mathematician, philosopher, inventor and mechanical engineer, Babbage originated the concept of a digital programmable computer.
Babbage is considered ...
, UK, 19th century mathematician who, about the time of the
Crimean War
The Crimean War, , was fought from October 1853 to February 1856 between Russia and an ultimately victorious alliance of the Ottoman Empire, France, the United Kingdom and Piedmont-Sardinia.
Geopolitical causes of the war included the de ...
, secretly developed an effective attack against
polyalphabetic substitution
A polyalphabetic cipher substitution, using multiple substitution alphabets. The Vigenère cipher is probably the best-known example of a polyalphabetic cipher, though it is a simplified special case. The Enigma machine is more complex but is sti ...
ciphers.
*
Leone Battista Alberti
Leon Battista Alberti (; 14 February 1404 – 25 April 1472) was an Italian Renaissance humanist author, artist, architect, poet, priest, linguist, philosopher, and cryptographer; he epitomised the nature of those identified now as polymaths. He ...
,
polymath
A polymath ( el, πολυμαθής, , "having learned much"; la, homo universalis, "universal human") is an individual whose knowledge spans a substantial number of subjects, known to draw on complex bodies of knowledge to solve specific pro ...
/universal
genius
Genius is a characteristic of original and exceptional insight in the performance of some art or endeavor that surpasses expectations, sets new standards for future works, establishes better methods of operation, or remains outside the capabiliti ...
, inventor of
polyalphabetic substitution
A polyalphabetic cipher substitution, using multiple substitution alphabets. The Vigenère cipher is probably the best-known example of a polyalphabetic cipher, though it is a simplified special case. The Enigma machine is more complex but is sti ...
(more specifically, the
Alberti cipher
The Alberti Cipher, created in 1467 by Italian architect Leon Battista Alberti, was one of the first polyalphabetic ciphers. In the opening pages of his treatise ' he explained how his conversation with the papal secretary Leonardo Dati about a re ...
), and what may have been the first mechanical encryption aid.
*
Giovanni Battista della Porta
Giambattista della Porta (; 1535 – 4 February 1615), also known as Giovanni Battista Della Porta, was an Italian scholar, polymath and playwright who lived in Naples at the time of the Renaissance, Scientific Revolution and Reformation.
Giamb ...
, author of a seminal work on
cryptanalysis
Cryptanalysis (from the Greek ''kryptós'', "hidden", and ''analýein'', "to analyze") refers to the process of analyzing information systems in order to understand hidden aspects of the systems. Cryptanalysis is used to breach cryptographic sec ...
.
*
Étienne Bazeries
Étienne Bazeries (21 August 1846, in Port Vendres – 7 November 1931, in Noyon) was a French military cryptanalyst active between 1890 and the First World War. He is best known for developing the " Bazeries Cylinder", an improved version of T ...
, French, military, considered one of the greatest natural cryptanalysts. Best known for developing the "
Bazeries Cylinder" and his influential 1901 text ''Les Chiffres secrets dévoilés'' ("Secret ciphers unveiled").
*
Giovan Battista Bellaso
Giovan Battista Bellaso (Brescia 1505–...) was an Italian cryptologist.
The Vigenère cipher is named after Blaise de Vigenère, although Giovan Battista Bellaso had invented it before Vigenère described his autokey cipher.
Biography
Bellaso ...
, Italian cryptologist
*
Giovanni Fontana (engineer)
Giovanni Fontana, also known as Johannes de Fontana (ca. 1395 – ca. 1455) was a fifteenth-century Italian physician and engineer. He was born in Venice in the 1390s and attended the University of Padua, where he received his degree in arts in 141 ...
, wrote two encrypted books
*
Hildegard of Bingen
Hildegard of Bingen (german: Hildegard von Bingen; la, Hildegardis Bingensis; 17 September 1179), also known as Saint Hildegard and the Sibyl of the Rhine, was a German Benedictine abbess and polymath active as a writer, composer, philosopher ...
used her own alphabet to write letters.
*
Julius Caesar
Gaius Julius Caesar (; ; 12 July 100 BC – 15 March 44 BC), was a Roman general and statesman. A member of the First Triumvirate, Caesar led the Roman armies in the Gallic Wars before defeating his political rival Pompey in a civil war, and ...
, Roman general/politician, has the
Caesar cipher named after him, and a
lost work on cryptography by Probus (probably Valerius Probus) is claimed to have covered his use of military cryptography in some detail. It is likely that he did not invent the cipher named after him, as other
substitution cipher
In cryptography, a substitution cipher is a method of encrypting in which units of plaintext are replaced with the ciphertext, in a defined manner, with the help of a key; the "units" may be single letters (the most common), pairs of letters, tri ...
s were in use well before his time.
*
Friedrich Kasiski
Major Friedrich Wilhelm Kasiski (29 November 1805 – 22 May 1881) was a German infantry officer, cryptographer and archeologist. Kasiski was born in Schlochau, Kingdom of Prussia (now Człuchów, Poland).
Military service
Kasiski enlisted in ...
, author of the first published attack on the
Vigenère cipher
The Vigenère cipher () is a method of encryption, encrypting alphabetic text by using a series of interwoven Caesar ciphers, based on the letters of a keyword. It employs a form of polyalphabetic cipher, polyalphabetic substitution.
First desc ...
, now known as the
Kasiski test.
*
Auguste Kerckhoffs, known for contributing cipher design principles.
*
Edgar Allan Poe
Edgar Allan Poe (; Edgar Poe; January 19, 1809 – October 7, 1849) was an American writer, poet, editor, and literary critic. Poe is best known for his poetry and short stories, particularly his tales of mystery and the macabre. He is wide ...
, author of the book, ''A Few Words on Secret Writing'', an essay on cryptanalysis, and ''
The Gold Bug'', a short story featuring the use of letter frequencies in the solution of a cryptogram.
*
Johannes Trithemius, mystic and first to describe ''tableaux'' (tables) for use in
polyalphabetic substitution
A polyalphabetic cipher substitution, using multiple substitution alphabets. The Vigenère cipher is probably the best-known example of a polyalphabetic cipher, though it is a simplified special case. The Enigma machine is more complex but is sti ...
. Wrote an early work on
steganography
Steganography ( ) is the practice of representing information within another message or physical object, in such a manner that the presence of the information is not evident to human inspection. In computing/electronic contexts, a computer file, ...
and cryptography generally.
*
Philips van Marnix, lord of Sint-Aldegonde
Philips of Marnix, Lord of Saint-Aldegonde, Lord of West-Souburg (Dutch: Filips van Marnix, heer van Sint-Aldegonde, heer van West-Souburg, French: Philippe de Marnix, seigneur de Sainte-Aldegonde; 7 March/20 July 1540 – 15 December 1598) was a ...
, deciphered Spanish messages for
William the Silent
William the Silent (24 April 153310 July 1584), also known as William the Taciturn (translated from nl, Willem de Zwijger), or, more commonly in the Netherlands, William of Orange ( nl, Willem van Oranje), was the main leader of the Dutch Re ...
during the Dutch revolt against the Spanish.
*
John Wallis
John Wallis (; la, Wallisius; ) was an English clergyman and mathematician who is given partial credit for the development of infinitesimal calculus. Between 1643 and 1689 he served as chief cryptographer for Parliament and, later, the royal ...
codebreaker for Cromwell and Charles II
*
Sir Charles Wheatstone
Sir Charles Wheatstone FRS FRSE DCL LLD (6 February 1802 – 19 October 1875), was an English scientist and inventor of many scientific breakthroughs of the Victorian era, including the English concertina, the stereoscope (a device for dis ...
, inventor of the so-called
Playfair cipher
The Playfair cipher or Playfair square or Wheatstone–Playfair cipher is a manual symmetric encryption technique and was the first literal digram substitution cipher. The scheme was invented in 1854 by Charles Wheatstone, but bears the name of ...
and general polymath.
World War I and World War II wartime cryptographers
*
Arne Beurling
Arne Carl-August Beurling (3 February 1905 – 20 November 1986) was a Swedish mathematician and professor of mathematics at Uppsala University (1937–1954) and later at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, New Jersey. Beurling worked ...
, Swedish mathematician and cryptograph.
*
Lambros D. Callimahos, US,
NSA
The National Security Agency (NSA) is a national-level intelligence agency of the United States Department of Defense, under the authority of the Director of National Intelligence (DNI). The NSA is responsible for global monitoring, collecti ...
, worked with William F. Friedman, taught NSA cryptanalysts.
*
Ann Z. Caracristi, US,
SIS, solved Japanese Army codes in World War II, later became deputy director of
National Security Agency
The National Security Agency (NSA) is a national-level intelligence agency of the United States Department of Defense, under the authority of the Director of National Intelligence (DNI). The NSA is responsible for global monitoring, collecti ...
.
*
Alec Naylor Dakin
Alec Naylor Dakin (3 April 1912 – 14 June 2003) was a Fellow of Oxford College, a cryptologist at Bletchley Park, an Egyptologist and schoolmaster.
Early life and family
Alec Dakin was born in Mytholmroyd in the West Riding of Yorkshire in ...
, UK,
Hut 4
Hut 4 was a wartime section of the Government Code and Cypher School (GC&CS) at Bletchley Park tasked with the translation, interpretation and distribution of '' Kriegsmarine'' (German navy) messages deciphered by Hut 8. The messages were largely ...
,
Bletchley park
Bletchley Park is an English country house and estate in Bletchley, Milton Keynes ( Buckinghamshire) that became the principal centre of Allied code-breaking during the Second World War. The mansion was constructed during the years following ...
during World War II.
*
Ludomir Danilewicz Ludomir Danilewicz (1905–1960) was a Polish engineer and, for some ten years before the outbreak of World War II, one of the four directors of the AVA Radio Company in Warsaw, Poland. AVA designed and built radio equipment for the Polish General ...
,
Poland
Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It is divided into 16 administrative provinces called voivodeships, covering an area of . Poland has a population of over 38 million and is the fifth-most populous ...
,
Biuro Szyfrow
The Cipher Bureau, in Polish: ''Biuro Szyfrów'' (), was the interwar Polish General Staff's Second Department's unit charged with SIGINT and both cryptography (the ''use'' of ciphers and codes) and cryptanalysis (the ''study'' of ciphers and ...
, helped to construct the Enigma machine copies to break the ciphers.
*
Alastair Denniston
Commander Alexander "Alastair" Guthrie Denniston (1 December 1881 – 1 January 1961) was a Scottish codebreaker in Room 40, deputy head of the Government Code and Cypher School (GC&CS) and hockey player. Denniston was appointed operational he ...
, UK, director of
GC&CS
Government Communications Headquarters, commonly known as GCHQ, is an intelligence and security organisation responsible for providing signals intelligence (SIGINT) and information assurance (IA) to the government and armed forces of the Un ...
at
Bletchley Park
Bletchley Park is an English country house and estate in Bletchley, Milton Keynes ( Buckinghamshire) that became the principal centre of Allied code-breaking during the Second World War. The mansion was constructed during the years following ...
from 1919 to 1942.
*
Agnes Meyer Driscoll, US, broke several Japanese ciphers.
*
Genevieve Grotjan Feinstein
Genevieve Marie Grotjan Feinstein (April 30, 1913 – August 10, 2006) was an American mathematician and cryptanalyst. She worked for the Signals Intelligence Service throughout World War II, during which time she played an important role in deci ...
, US,
SIS, noticed the pattern that led to breaking
Purple
Purple is any of a variety of colors with hue between red and blue. In the RGB color model used in computer and television screens, purples are produced by mixing red and blue light. In the RYB color model historically used by painters, pu ...
.
*
Elizebeth Smith Friedman, US,
Coast Guard
A coast guard or coastguard is a maritime security organization of a particular country. The term embraces wide range of responsibilities in different countries, from being a heavily armed military force with customs and security duties to ...
and
US Treasury Department
The Department of the Treasury (USDT) is the national treasury and finance department of the federal government of the United States, where it serves as an executive department. The department oversees the Bureau of Engraving and Printing and ...
cryptographer, co-invented modern cryptography.
*
William F. Friedman
William Frederick Friedman (September 24, 1891 – November 12, 1969) was a US Army cryptographer who ran the research division of the Army's Signal Intelligence Service (SIS) in the 1930s, and parts of its follow-on services into the 1950s. ...
, US,
SIS, introduced statistical methods into
cryptography
Cryptography, or cryptology (from grc, , translit=kryptós "hidden, secret"; and ''graphein'', "to write", or ''-logia'', "study", respectively), is the practice and study of techniques for secure communication in the presence of adver ...
.
*
Cecilia Elspeth Giles
Cecilia Elspeth Giles CBE (18 September 1922 – 19 April 2020) was a Scottish university administrator and a Bletchley Park veteran.
Life
Giles was born in Dumfries, Scotland to Dr and Mrs Falconer Giles. Her father was a Reader in Ancient Gre ...
, UK,
Bletchley Park
Bletchley Park is an English country house and estate in Bletchley, Milton Keynes ( Buckinghamshire) that became the principal centre of Allied code-breaking during the Second World War. The mansion was constructed during the years following ...
*
Jack Good UK,
GC&CS
Government Communications Headquarters, commonly known as GCHQ, is an intelligence and security organisation responsible for providing signals intelligence (SIGINT) and information assurance (IA) to the government and armed forces of the Un ...
,
Bletchley Park
Bletchley Park is an English country house and estate in Bletchley, Milton Keynes ( Buckinghamshire) that became the principal centre of Allied code-breaking during the Second World War. The mansion was constructed during the years following ...
worked with
Alan Turing
Alan Mathison Turing (; 23 June 1912 – 7 June 1954) was an English mathematician, computer scientist, logician, cryptanalyst, philosopher, and theoretical biologist. Turing was highly influential in the development of theoretical com ...
on the statistical approach to cryptanalysis.
*
Nigel de Grey
Nigel de Grey (27 March 1886 – 25 May 1951) was a British codebreaker. Son of the rector of Copdock, Suffolk, and grandson of the 5th Lord Walsingham, he was educated at Eton College and became fluent in French and German. In 1907 he ...
, UK,
Room 40
Room 40, also known as 40 O.B. (old building; officially part of NID25), was the cryptanalysis section of the British Admiralty during the First World War.
The group, which was formed in October 1914, began when Rear-Admiral Henry Oliver, the ...
, played an important role in the decryption of the
Zimmermann Telegram during World War I.
*
Dillwyn Knox, UK,
Room 40
Room 40, also known as 40 O.B. (old building; officially part of NID25), was the cryptanalysis section of the British Admiralty during the First World War.
The group, which was formed in October 1914, began when Rear-Admiral Henry Oliver, the ...
and
GC&CS
Government Communications Headquarters, commonly known as GCHQ, is an intelligence and security organisation responsible for providing signals intelligence (SIGINT) and information assurance (IA) to the government and armed forces of the Un ...
, broke commercial
Enigma
Enigma may refer to:
*Riddle, someone or something that is mysterious or puzzling
Biology
*ENIGMA, a class of gene in the LIM domain
Computing and technology
* Enigma (company), a New York-based data-technology startup
* Enigma machine, a family ...
cipher as used by the
Abwehr (German military intelligence).
*
Solomon Kullback
Solomon Kullback (April 3, 1907August 5, 1994) was an American cryptanalyst and mathematician, who was one of the first three employees hired by William F. Friedman at the US Army's Signal Intelligence Service (SIS) in the 1930s, along with Fra ...
US,
SIS, helped break the Japanese
Red cipher, later Chief Scientist at the
National Security Agency
The National Security Agency (NSA) is a national-level intelligence agency of the United States Department of Defense, under the authority of the Director of National Intelligence (DNI). The NSA is responsible for global monitoring, collecti ...
.
*
Frank W. Lewis US, worked with William F. Friedman, puzzle master
*
William Hamilton Martin and Bernon F. Mitchell, U.S.
National Security Agency
The National Security Agency (NSA) is a national-level intelligence agency of the United States Department of Defense, under the authority of the Director of National Intelligence (DNI). The NSA is responsible for global monitoring, collecti ...
cryptologists who defected to the Soviet Union in 1960
*
Leo Marks
Leopold Samuel Marks, (24 September 1920 – 15 January 2001) was an English writer, screenwriter, and cryptographer. During the Second World War he headed the codes office supporting resistance agents in occupied Europe for the secret Special ...
UK,
SOE cryptography director, author and playwright.
*
Donald Michie
Donald Michie (; 11 November 1923 – 7 July 2007) was a British researcher in artificial intelligence. During World War II, Michie worked for the Government Code and Cypher School at Bletchley Park, contributing to the effort to solve " Tunny ...
UK,
GC&CS
Government Communications Headquarters, commonly known as GCHQ, is an intelligence and security organisation responsible for providing signals intelligence (SIGINT) and information assurance (IA) to the government and armed forces of the Un ...
,
Bletchley Park
Bletchley Park is an English country house and estate in Bletchley, Milton Keynes ( Buckinghamshire) that became the principal centre of Allied code-breaking during the Second World War. The mansion was constructed during the years following ...
worked on
Cryptanalysis of the Lorenz cipher
Cryptanalysis of the Lorenz cipher was the process that enabled the British to read high-level German army messages during World War II. The British Government Code and Cypher School (GC&CS) at Bletchley Park decrypted many communications betwee ...
and the
Colossus computer
Colossus was a set of computers developed by British codebreakers in the years 1943–1945 to help in the cryptanalysis of the Lorenz cipher. Colossus used thermionic valves (vacuum tubes) to perform Boolean and counting operations. Colossus ...
.
*
Max Newman
Maxwell Herman Alexander Newman, FRS, (7 February 1897 – 22 February 1984), generally known as Max Newman, was a British mathematician and codebreaker. His work in World War II led to the construction of Colossus, the world's first operatio ...
, UK,
GC&CS
Government Communications Headquarters, commonly known as GCHQ, is an intelligence and security organisation responsible for providing signals intelligence (SIGINT) and information assurance (IA) to the government and armed forces of the Un ...
,
Bletchley Park
Bletchley Park is an English country house and estate in Bletchley, Milton Keynes ( Buckinghamshire) that became the principal centre of Allied code-breaking during the Second World War. The mansion was constructed during the years following ...
headed the section that developed the
Colossus computer
Colossus was a set of computers developed by British codebreakers in the years 1943–1945 to help in the cryptanalysis of the Lorenz cipher. Colossus used thermionic valves (vacuum tubes) to perform Boolean and counting operations. Colossus ...
for
Cryptanalysis of the Lorenz cipher
Cryptanalysis of the Lorenz cipher was the process that enabled the British to read high-level German army messages during World War II. The British Government Code and Cypher School (GC&CS) at Bletchley Park decrypted many communications betwee ...
.
*
Georges Painvin
Georges Jean Painvin (; 28 January 1886 – 21 January 1980) was a French geologist and industrialist, best known as the cryptanalyst who broke the ADFGX/ADFGVX cipher used by the Germans during the First World War.
Early life
Painvin was born ...
French, broke the
ADFGVX cipher
In cryptography, the ADFGVX cipher was a manually applied field cipher used by the Imperial German Army during World War I. It was used to transmit messages secretly using wireless telegraphy. ADFGVX was in fact an extension of an earlier cipher ca ...
during the
First World War
World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...
.
*
Marian Rejewski,
Poland
Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It is divided into 16 administrative provinces called voivodeships, covering an area of . Poland has a population of over 38 million and is the fifth-most populous ...
,
Biuro Szyfrów, a Polish mathematician and cryptologist who, in 1932, solved the
Enigma machine with plugboard, the main cipher device then in use by Germany.
*
John Joseph Rochefort
Joseph John Rochefort (May 12, 1900 – July 20, 1976) was an American naval officer and cryptanalyst. He was a major figure in the United States Navy's cryptographic and intelligence operations from 1925 to 1946, particularly in the Battle of M ...
US, made major contributions to the break into
JN-25
The vulnerability of Japanese naval codes and ciphers was crucial to the conduct of World War II, and had an important influence on foreign relations between Japan and the west in the years leading up to the war as well. Every Japanese code was e ...
after the
attack on Pearl Harbor
The attack on Pearl HarborAlso known as the Battle of Pearl Harbor was a surprise military strike by the Imperial Japanese Navy Air Service upon the United States against the naval base at Pearl Harbor in Honolulu, Territory of Hawaii, j ...
.
*
Leo Rosen
Leo Rosen was a U.S. cryptanalyst who worked with Frank Rowlett at Signals Intelligence Service (S.I.S.) before the start of World War II on Japanese ciphers. Rowlett found a method to read the messages enciphered on the Japanese PURPLE machine ...
US,
SIS, deduced that the
Japanese Purple machine was built with stepping switches.
*
Frank Rowlett
Frank Byron Rowlett (May 2, 1908 – June 29, 1998) was an American cryptologist.
Life and career
Rowlett was born in Rose Hill, Lee County, Virginia and attended Emory & Henry College in Emory, Virginia. In 1929 he received a bachelor's d ...
US,
SIS, leader of the team that broke
Purple
Purple is any of a variety of colors with hue between red and blue. In the RGB color model used in computer and television screens, purples are produced by mixing red and blue light. In the RYB color model historically used by painters, pu ...
.
*
Jerzy Różycki
Jerzy Witold Różycki (; Vilshana, Ukraine, 24 July 1909 – 9 January 1942, Mediterranean Sea, near the Balearic Islands) was a Polish mathematician and cryptologist who worked at breaking German Enigma-machine ciphers before and during World ...
,
Poland
Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It is divided into 16 administrative provinces called voivodeships, covering an area of . Poland has a population of over 38 million and is the fifth-most populous ...
,
Biuro Szyfrów, helped break German
Enigma
Enigma may refer to:
*Riddle, someone or something that is mysterious or puzzling
Biology
*ENIGMA, a class of gene in the LIM domain
Computing and technology
* Enigma (company), a New York-based data-technology startup
* Enigma machine, a family ...
ciphers.
*
Luigi Sacco
Luigi Sacco (1 August 1883 in Alba – 5 December 1970 in Rome) was an Italian general and cryptanalyst
Cryptanalysis (from the Greek ''kryptós'', "hidden", and ''analýein'', "to analyze") refers to the process of analyzing information systems ...
, Italy, Italian General and author of the ''Manual of Cryptography''.
*
Laurance Safford
Captain, U.S.N. Laurance Frye Safford (October 22, 1893 – May 15, 1973) was a U.S. Navy cryptologist. He established the Naval cryptologic organization after World War I, and headed the effort more or less constantly until shortly after the ...
US, chief cryptographer for the US Navy for 2 decades+, including World War II.
*
Abraham Sinkov
Abraham Sinkov (August 22, 1907 – January 19, 1998) was a US cryptanalyst. An early employee of the U.S. Army's Signals Intelligence Service, he held several leadership positions during World War II, transitioning to the new National Security A ...
US,
SIS.
*
John Tiltman
Brigadier John Hessell Tiltman, (25 May 1894 – 10 August 1982) was a British Army officer who worked in intelligence, often at or with the Government Code and Cypher School (GC&CS) starting in the 1920s. His intelligence work was largely conn ...
UK, Brigadier,
Room 40
Room 40, also known as 40 O.B. (old building; officially part of NID25), was the cryptanalysis section of the British Admiralty during the First World War.
The group, which was formed in October 1914, began when Rear-Admiral Henry Oliver, the ...
,
GC&CS
Government Communications Headquarters, commonly known as GCHQ, is an intelligence and security organisation responsible for providing signals intelligence (SIGINT) and information assurance (IA) to the government and armed forces of the Un ...
,
Bletchley Park
Bletchley Park is an English country house and estate in Bletchley, Milton Keynes ( Buckinghamshire) that became the principal centre of Allied code-breaking during the Second World War. The mansion was constructed during the years following ...
,
GCHQ
Government Communications Headquarters, commonly known as GCHQ, is an intelligence and security organisation responsible for providing signals intelligence (SIGINT) and information assurance (IA) to the government and armed forces of the Unit ...
,
NSA
The National Security Agency (NSA) is a national-level intelligence agency of the United States Department of Defense, under the authority of the Director of National Intelligence (DNI). The NSA is responsible for global monitoring, collecti ...
. Extraordinary length and range of cryptographic service
*
Alan Mathison Turing UK,
GC&CS
Government Communications Headquarters, commonly known as GCHQ, is an intelligence and security organisation responsible for providing signals intelligence (SIGINT) and information assurance (IA) to the government and armed forces of the Un ...
,
Bletchley Park
Bletchley Park is an English country house and estate in Bletchley, Milton Keynes ( Buckinghamshire) that became the principal centre of Allied code-breaking during the Second World War. The mansion was constructed during the years following ...
where he was chief cryptographer, inventor of the
Bombe
The bombe () was an electro-mechanical device used by British cryptologists to help decipher German Enigma-machine-encrypted secret messages during World War II. The US Navy and US Army later produced their own machines to the same functi ...
that was used in decrypting
Enigma
Enigma may refer to:
*Riddle, someone or something that is mysterious or puzzling
Biology
*ENIGMA, a class of gene in the LIM domain
Computing and technology
* Enigma (company), a New York-based data-technology startup
* Enigma machine, a family ...
, mathematician, logician, and renowned pioneer of
Computer Science
Computer science is the study of computation, automation, and information. Computer science spans theoretical disciplines (such as algorithms, theory of computation, information theory, and automation) to Applied science, practical discipli ...
.
*
William Thomas Tutte
William Thomas Tutte OC FRS FRSC (; 14 May 1917 – 2 May 2002) was an English and Canadian codebreaker and mathematician. During the Second World War, he made a brilliant and fundamental advance in cryptanalysis of the Lorenz cipher, a majo ...
UK,
GC&CS
Government Communications Headquarters, commonly known as GCHQ, is an intelligence and security organisation responsible for providing signals intelligence (SIGINT) and information assurance (IA) to the government and armed forces of the Un ...
,
Bletchley Park
Bletchley Park is an English country house and estate in Bletchley, Milton Keynes ( Buckinghamshire) that became the principal centre of Allied code-breaking during the Second World War. The mansion was constructed during the years following ...
, with
John Tiltman
Brigadier John Hessell Tiltman, (25 May 1894 – 10 August 1982) was a British Army officer who worked in intelligence, often at or with the Government Code and Cypher School (GC&CS) starting in the 1920s. His intelligence work was largely conn ...
, broke Lorenz SZ 40/42 encryption machine (codenamed Tunny) leading to the development of the
Colossus computer
Colossus was a set of computers developed by British codebreakers in the years 1943–1945 to help in the cryptanalysis of the Lorenz cipher. Colossus used thermionic valves (vacuum tubes) to perform Boolean and counting operations. Colossus ...
.
*
William Stone Weedon, US,
*
Gordon Welchman
William Gordon Welchman (15 June 1906 – 8 October 1985) was a British mathematician. During World War II, he worked at Britain's secret codebreaking centre, "Station X" at Bletchley Park, where he was one of the most important contributors. ...
UK,
GC&CS
Government Communications Headquarters, commonly known as GCHQ, is an intelligence and security organisation responsible for providing signals intelligence (SIGINT) and information assurance (IA) to the government and armed forces of the Un ...
,
Bletchley Park
Bletchley Park is an English country house and estate in Bletchley, Milton Keynes ( Buckinghamshire) that became the principal centre of Allied code-breaking during the Second World War. The mansion was constructed during the years following ...
where he was head of Hut Six (German Army and Air Force
Enigma
Enigma may refer to:
*Riddle, someone or something that is mysterious or puzzling
Biology
*ENIGMA, a class of gene in the LIM domain
Computing and technology
* Enigma (company), a New York-based data-technology startup
* Enigma machine, a family ...
cipher.
decryption
In cryptography, encryption is the process of encoding information. This process converts the original representation of the information, known as plaintext, into an alternative form known as ciphertext. Ideally, only authorized parties can decip ...
), made an important contribution to the design of the
Bombe
The bombe () was an electro-mechanical device used by British cryptologists to help decipher German Enigma-machine-encrypted secret messages during World War II. The US Navy and US Army later produced their own machines to the same functi ...
.
*
Herbert Yardley US,
MI8 (US), author "The American Black Chamber", worked in China as a cryptographer and briefly in Canada.
*
Henryk Zygalski
Henryk Zygalski (; 15 July 1908 – 30 August 1978) was a Polish mathematician and cryptologist who worked at breaking German Enigma ciphers before and during World War II.
Life
Zygalski was born on 15 July 1908 in Posen, German Empire (now Pozn ...
,
Poland
Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It is divided into 16 administrative provinces called voivodeships, covering an area of . Poland has a population of over 38 million and is the fifth-most populous ...
,
Biuro Szyfrów, helped break German
Enigma
Enigma may refer to:
*Riddle, someone or something that is mysterious or puzzling
Biology
*ENIGMA, a class of gene in the LIM domain
Computing and technology
* Enigma (company), a New York-based data-technology startup
* Enigma machine, a family ...
ciphers.
*
Karl Stein German, Head of the Division IVa (security of own processes) at
Cipher Department of the High Command of the Wehrmacht
The Cipher Department of the High Command of the Wehrmacht (german: Amtsgruppe Wehrmachtnachrichtenverbindungen, Abteilung Chiffrierwesen) (also ''Oberkommando der Wehrmacht Chiffrierabteilung'' or ''Chiffrierabteilung of the High Command of the W ...
. Discoverer of
Stein manifold In mathematics, in the theory of several complex variables and complex manifolds, a Stein manifold is a complex submanifold of the vector space of ''n'' complex dimensions. They were introduced by and named after . A Stein space is similar to a Ste ...
.
*
Gisbert Hasenjaeger
Gisbert F. R. Hasenjaeger (June 1, 1919 – September 2, 2006) was a German mathematical logician. Independently and simultaneously with Leon Henkin in 1949, he developed a new proof of the completeness theorem of Kurt Gödel for predicate logi ...
German, Tester of the Enigma. Discovered new proof of the
completeness theorem
Complete may refer to:
Logic
* Completeness (logic)
* Completeness of a theory, the property of a theory that every formula in the theory's language or its negation is provable
Mathematics
* The completeness of the real numbers, which implies ...
of
Kurt Gödel
Kurt Friedrich Gödel ( , ; April 28, 1906 – January 14, 1978) was a logician, mathematician, and philosopher. Considered along with Aristotle and Gottlob Frege to be one of the most significant logicians in history, Gödel had an imme ...
for
predicate logic
First-order logic—also known as predicate logic, quantificational logic, and first-order predicate calculus—is a collection of formal systems used in mathematics, philosophy, linguistics, and computer science. First-order logic uses quantifie ...
.
*
Heinrich Scholz
Heinrich Scholz (; 17 December 1884 – 30 December 1956) was a German logician, philosopher, and Protestant theologian. He was a peer of Alan Turing who mentioned Scholz when writing with regard to the reception of " On Computable Numbers, w ...
German, Worked in Division IVa at
OKW. Logician and pen friend of Alan Turning.
*
Gottfried Köthe
Gottfried Maria Hugo Köthe (born 25 December 1905 in Graz – died 30 April 1989 in Frankfurt) was an Austrian mathematician working in abstract algebra and functional analysis.
Scientific career
In 1923 Köthe enrolled in the University o ...
German, Cryptanalyst at OKW. Mathematician created theory of
topological vector spaces
In mathematics, a topological vector space (also called a linear topological space and commonly abbreviated TVS or t.v.s.) is one of the basic structures investigated in functional analysis.
A topological vector space is a vector space that is als ...
.
*
Ernst Witt
Ernst Witt (26 June 1911 – 3 July 1991) was a German mathematician, one of the leading algebraists of his time.
Biography
Witt was born on the island of Alsen, then a part of the German Empire. Shortly after his birth, his parents moved the ...
German, Mathematician at OKW.
Mathematical Discoveries Named After Ernst Witt.
*
Helmut Grunsky
Helmut Grunsky (11 July 1904 – 5 June 1986) was a German mathematician who worked in complex analysis and geometric function theory. He introduced Grunsky's theorem and the Grunsky inequalities.
In 1936, he was appointed editor of ''Jahrbuch ...
German, worked in
complex analysis
Complex analysis, traditionally known as the theory of functions of a complex variable, is the branch of mathematical analysis that investigates Function (mathematics), functions of complex numbers. It is helpful in many branches of mathemati ...
and
geometric function theory
Geometric function theory is the study of geometric properties of analytic functions. A fundamental result in the theory is the Riemann mapping theorem.
Topics in geometric function theory
The following are some of the most important topics in ge ...
. He introduced
Grunsky's theorem In mathematics, Grunsky's theorem, due to the German mathematician Helmut Grunsky, is a result in complex analysis concerning Holomorphic function, holomorphic univalent functions defined on the unit disk in the complex numbers. The theorem states ...
and the
Grunsky inequalities.
*
Georg Hamel
Georg Karl Wilhelm Hamel (12 September 1877 – 4 October 1954) was a German mathematician with interests in mechanics, the foundations of mathematics and function theory.
Biography
Hamel was born in Düren, Rhenish Prussia. He studied at A ...
.
*
Oswald Teichmüller
Paul Julius Oswald Teichmüller (; 18 June 1913 – 11 September 1943) was a German mathematician who made contributions to complex analysis. He introduced quasiconformal mappings and differential geometric methods into the study of Riemann surf ...
German, Temporarily employed at OKW as cryptanalyst. Introduced
quasiconformal mapping
In mathematical complex analysis, a quasiconformal mapping, introduced by and named by , is a homeomorphism between plane domains which to first order takes small circles to small ellipses of bounded eccentricity.
Intuitively, let ''f'' : ''D' ...
s and
differential geometric methods into
complex analysis
Complex analysis, traditionally known as the theory of functions of a complex variable, is the branch of mathematical analysis that investigates Function (mathematics), functions of complex numbers. It is helpful in many branches of mathemati ...
. Described by
Friedrich L. Bauer
Friedrich Ludwig "Fritz" Bauer (10 June 1924 – 26 March 2015) was a German pioneer of computer science and professor at the Technical University of Munich.
Life
Bauer earned his Abitur in 1942 and served in the Wehrmacht during World War ...
as an extreme Nazi and a true genius.
*
Hans Rohrbach
Hans Rohrbach (27 February 1903 – 19 December 1993) was a German mathematician. He worked both as an algebraist and a number theorist and later worked as cryptanalyst at Pers Z S, the German Foreign Office cipher bureau, during World War II. ...
German, Mathematician at AA/Pers Z, the German department of state, civilian diplomatic cryptological agency.
*
Wolfgang Franz German, Mathematician who worked at OKW. Later significant discoveries in
Topology
In mathematics, topology (from the Greek language, Greek words , and ) is concerned with the properties of a mathematical object, geometric object that are preserved under Continuous function, continuous Deformation theory, deformations, such ...
.
*
Werner Weber German, Mathematician at OKW.
*
Georg Aumann
Georg Aumann (11 November 1906, Munich, Germany – 4 August 1980), was a German mathematician. He was known for his work in general topology and regulated functions. During World War II, he worked as part of a group of five mathematicians, rec ...
German, Mathematician at OKW. His doctoral student was
Friedrich L. Bauer
Friedrich Ludwig "Fritz" Bauer (10 June 1924 – 26 March 2015) was a German pioneer of computer science and professor at the Technical University of Munich.
Life
Bauer earned his Abitur in 1942 and served in the Wehrmacht during World War ...
.
*
Otto Leiberich
Otto Leiberich (5 December 1927 in Crailsheim - 23 June 2015) was a German cryptologist and mathematician. Leiberich is most notable for establishing the Bundesamt für Sicherheit in der Informationstechnik in 1991.
Life
Leiberich started his ...
German, Mathematician who worked as a linguist at the
Cipher Department of the High Command of the Wehrmacht
The Cipher Department of the High Command of the Wehrmacht (german: Amtsgruppe Wehrmachtnachrichtenverbindungen, Abteilung Chiffrierwesen) (also ''Oberkommando der Wehrmacht Chiffrierabteilung'' or ''Chiffrierabteilung of the High Command of the W ...
.
*
Alexander Aigner
Alexander Aigner (18 May 1909 – 2 September 1988) was number theorist and a full university professor for mathematics at the Karl Franzens University in Graz, Austria. During World War II he was part of a group of five mathematicians, whic ...
German, Mathematician who worked at OKW.
*
Erich Hüttenhain
Erich Hüttenhain (26 January 1905 in Siegen – 1 December 1990 in Brühl (Rhineland), Brühl) was a German academic mathematician and cryptographer (Cryptography) and considered a leading Cryptanalysis, cryptanalyst in the Third Reich. He w ...
German, Chief cryptanalyst of and led Chi IV (section 4) of the
Cipher Department of the High Command of the Wehrmacht
The Cipher Department of the High Command of the Wehrmacht (german: Amtsgruppe Wehrmachtnachrichtenverbindungen, Abteilung Chiffrierwesen) (also ''Oberkommando der Wehrmacht Chiffrierabteilung'' or ''Chiffrierabteilung of the High Command of the W ...
. A German mathematician and cryptanalyst who tested a number of German cipher machines and found them to be breakable.
*
Wilhelm Fenner German, Chief Cryptologist and Director of
Cipher Department of the High Command of the Wehrmacht
The Cipher Department of the High Command of the Wehrmacht (german: Amtsgruppe Wehrmachtnachrichtenverbindungen, Abteilung Chiffrierwesen) (also ''Oberkommando der Wehrmacht Chiffrierabteilung'' or ''Chiffrierabteilung of the High Command of the W ...
.
*
Walther Fricke German, Worked alongside Dr Erich Hüttenhain at
Cipher Department of the High Command of the Wehrmacht
The Cipher Department of the High Command of the Wehrmacht (german: Amtsgruppe Wehrmachtnachrichtenverbindungen, Abteilung Chiffrierwesen) (also ''Oberkommando der Wehrmacht Chiffrierabteilung'' or ''Chiffrierabteilung of the High Command of the W ...
. Mathematician, logician, cryptanalyst and linguist.
*
Fritz Menzer
Ostwin Fritz Menzer (6 April 1908 in Herrndorf near Niederschöna in Saxony between Chemnitz and Dresden – 25 October 2005 in Bad Homburg vor der Höhe) was a German cryptologist, who before and during World War II, worked in the In 7/VI, the ...
German. Inventor of SG39 and SG41.
Other pre-computer
*
Rosario Candela
Rosario Candela (March 7, 1890 – October 3, 1953) was an Italian American architect who achieved renown through his apartment building designs in New York City, primarily during the boom years of the 1920s. He is credited with defining the cit ...
, US, Architect and notable amateur cryptologist who authored books and taught classes on the subject to civilians at
Hunter College
Hunter College is a public university in New York City. It is one of the constituent colleges of the City University of New York and offers studies in more than one hundred undergraduate and postgraduate fields across five schools. It also admi ...
.
*
Claude Elwood Shannon
Claude Elwood Shannon (April 30, 1916 – February 24, 2001) was an American mathematician, electrical engineer, and cryptographer known as a "father of information theory".
As a 21-year-old master's degree student at the Massachusetts Institu ...
, US, founder of
information theory
Information theory is the scientific study of the quantification (science), quantification, computer data storage, storage, and telecommunication, communication of information. The field was originally established by the works of Harry Nyquist a ...
, proved the
one-time pad
In cryptography, the one-time pad (OTP) is an encryption technique that cannot be cracked, but requires the use of a single-use pre-shared key that is not smaller than the message being sent. In this technique, a plaintext is paired with a ran ...
to be unbreakable.
Modern
See also:
Modern cryptographers for a more exhaustive list.
Symmetric-key algorithm inventors
*
Ross Anderson, UK,
University of Cambridge
, mottoeng = Literal: From here, light and sacred draughts.
Non literal: From this place, we gain enlightenment and precious knowledge.
, established =
, other_name = The Chancellor, Masters and Schola ...
, co-inventor of the
Serpent
Serpent or The Serpent may refer to:
* Snake, a carnivorous reptile of the suborder Serpentes
Mythology and religion
* Sea serpent, a monstrous ocean creature
* Serpent (symbolism), the snake in religious rites and mythological contexts
* Serp ...
cipher.
*
Paulo S. L. M. Barreto
Paulo S. L. M. Barreto (born 1965) is a Brazilian cryptographer and one of the designers of the Whirlpool (algorithm), Whirlpool cryptographic hash function, hash function and the block ciphers Anubis (cipher), Anubis and KHAZAD, together with Vin ...
, Brazilian,
University of São Paulo
The University of São Paulo ( pt, Universidade de São Paulo, USP) is a public university in the Brazilian state of São Paulo. It is the largest Brazilian public university and the country's most prestigious educational institution, the bes ...
, co-inventor of the
Whirlpool hash function.
*
George Blakley
George Robert (Bob) Blakley Jr. was an American cryptographer and a professor of mathematics at Texas A&M University, best known for inventing a secret sharing scheme in 1979 (see ).
Biography
Blakley did his undergraduate studies in physics at Ge ...
, US, independent inventor of
secret sharing
Secret sharing (also called secret splitting) refers to methods for distributing a secret among a group, in such a way that no individual holds any intelligible information about the secret, but when a sufficient number of individuals combine th ...
.
*
Eli Biham
Eli Biham ( he, אלי ביהם) is an Israeli cryptographer and cryptanalyst, currently a professor at the Technion - Israel Institute of Technology Computer Science department. Starting from October 2008 and till 2013, Biham was the dean of t ...
, Israel, co-inventor of the
Serpent
Serpent or The Serpent may refer to:
* Snake, a carnivorous reptile of the suborder Serpentes
Mythology and religion
* Sea serpent, a monstrous ocean creature
* Serpent (symbolism), the snake in religious rites and mythological contexts
* Serp ...
cipher.
*
Don Coppersmith
Don Coppersmith (born 1950) is a cryptographer and mathematician. He was involved in the design of the Data Encryption Standard block cipher at IBM, particularly the design of the S-boxes, strengthening them against differential cryptanalysi ...
, co-inventor of
DES
Des is a masculine given name, mostly a short form (hypocorism) of Desmond. People named Des include:
People
* Des Buckingham, English football manager
* Des Corcoran, (1928–2004), Australian politician
* Des Dillon (disambiguation), sever ...
and MARS (cryptography), MARS ciphers.
* Joan Daemen, Belgian, co-developer of Rijndael which became the Advanced Encryption Standard (AES), and Keccak which became SHA-3.
* Horst Feistel, German, IBM, namesake of Feistel networks and Lucifer (cipher), Lucifer cipher.
* Lars Knudsen, Denmark, co-inventor of the
Serpent
Serpent or The Serpent may refer to:
* Snake, a carnivorous reptile of the suborder Serpentes
Mythology and religion
* Sea serpent, a monstrous ocean creature
* Serpent (symbolism), the snake in religious rites and mythological contexts
* Serp ...
cipher.
* Ralph Merkle, US, inventor of Merkle trees.
* Bart Preneel, Belgian, co-inventor of RIPEMD-160.
* Vincent Rijmen, Belgian, co-developer of Rijndael which became the Advanced Encryption Standard (AES).
* Ron Rivest, Ronald L. Rivest, US, MIT, inventor of RC5, RC cipher series and MD5, MD algorithm series.
* Bruce Schneier, US, inventor of Blowfish (cipher), Blowfish and co-inventor of Twofish and Threefish.
* Xuejia Lai, CH, co-inventor of International Data Encryption Algorithm (IDEA).
* Adi Shamir, Israel, Weizmann Institute, inventor of
secret sharing
Secret sharing (also called secret splitting) refers to methods for distributing a secret among a group, in such a way that no individual holds any intelligible information about the secret, but when a sufficient number of individuals combine th ...
.
Asymmetric-key algorithm inventors
* Leonard Adleman, US, University of Southern California, USC, the 'A' in RSA (algorithm), RSA.
* David Chaum, US, inventor of blind signatures.
* Clifford Cocks, UK
GCHQ
Government Communications Headquarters, commonly known as GCHQ, is an intelligence and security organisation responsible for providing signals intelligence (SIGINT) and information assurance (IA) to the government and armed forces of the Unit ...
first inventor of RSA (algorithm), RSA, a fact that remained secret until 1997 and so was unknown to Ron Rivest, Rivest, Adi Shamir, Shamir, and Leonard Adleman, Adleman.
* Whitfield Diffie, US, (public) co-inventor of the Diffie-Hellman key-exchange protocol.
* Taher Elgamal, US (born Egyptian), inventor of the Elgamal encryption, Elgamal discrete log cryptosystem.
* Shafi Goldwasser, US and Israel, MIT and Weizmann Institute, co-discoverer of zero-knowledge proofs, and of Semantic security.
* Martin Hellman, US, (public) co-inventor of the Diffie-Hellman key-exchange protocol.
* Neal Koblitz, independent co-creator of elliptic curve cryptography.
* Alfred Menezes, co-inventor of MQV, an elliptic curve cryptography, elliptic curve technique.
* Silvio Micali, US (born Italian), MIT, co-discoverer of zero-knowledge proofs, and of Semantic security.
* Victor S. Miller, Victor Miller, independent co-creator of elliptic curve cryptography.
* David Naccache, inventor of the Naccache–Stern cryptosystem and of the Naccache–Stern knapsack cryptosystem.
* Moni Naor, co-inventor the Naor–Yung encryption paradigm for Chosen-ciphertext attack, CCA security.
* Rafail Ostrovsky, co-inventor of Oblivious RAM, of single-server Private Information Retrieval, and proactive secret sharing, proactive cryptosystems.
* Pascal Paillier, inventor of Paillier encryption.
* Michael O. Rabin, Israel, inventor of Rabin encryption.
* Ron Rivest, Ronald L. Rivest, US, MIT, the 'R' in RSA (algorithm), RSA.
* Adi Shamir, Israel, Weizmann Institute, the 'S' in RSA (algorithm), RSA.
* Moti Yung, co-inventor of the Naor–Yung encryption paradigm for Chosen-ciphertext attack, CCA security, of threshold cryptosystems, and proactive secret sharing, proactive cryptosystems.
Cryptanalysts
* Joan Clarke, English cryptanalyst and numismatist best known for her work as a code-breaker at Bletchley Park during the Second World War.
*
Ross Anderson, UK.
*
Eli Biham
Eli Biham ( he, אלי ביהם) is an Israeli cryptographer and cryptanalyst, currently a professor at the Technion - Israel Institute of Technology Computer Science department. Starting from October 2008 and till 2013, Biham was the dean of t ...
, Israel, co-discoverer of differential cryptanalysis and Related-key attack.
* Matt Blaze, US.
* Dan Boneh, US, Stanford University.
* Niels Ferguson, Netherlands, co-inventor of Twofish and Fortuna.
* Ian Goldberg, Canada, University of Waterloo.
* Lars Knudsen, Denmark, Technical University of Denmark, DTU, discovered integral cryptanalysis.
* Paul Carl Kocher, Paul Kocher, US, discovered differential power analysis.
* Mitsuru Matsui, Japan, discoverer of linear cryptanalysis.
* David A. Wagner, David Wagner, US, UC Berkeley, co-discoverer of the slide attack, slide and boomerang attacks.
* Xiaoyun Wang, the People's Republic of China, known for MD5 and SHA-1 cryptographic hash function, hash function attacks.
* Alex Biryukov, University of Luxembourg, known for impossible differential cryptanalysis and slide attack.
*Moti Yung, Kleptography.
Algorithmic number theorists
* Daniel J. Bernstein, US, developed several popular algorithms, fought US government restrictions in ''Bernstein v. United States.''
*
Don Coppersmith
Don Coppersmith (born 1950) is a cryptographer and mathematician. He was involved in the design of the Data Encryption Standard block cipher at IBM, particularly the design of the S-boxes, strengthening them against differential cryptanalysi ...
, US
* Dorian M. Goldfeld, US. Along with Michael Anshel and Iris Anshel invented the Anshel–Anshel–Goldfeld key exchange and the Algebraic Eraser. They also helped found Braid group, Braid Group Cryptography.
Theoreticians
* Mihir Bellare, US, UCSD, co-proposer of the Random oracle model.
* Dan Boneh, US, Stanford.
* Gilles Brassard, Canada, Université de Montréal. Co-inventor of quantum cryptography.
* Claude Crépeau, Canada, McGill University.
* Oded Goldreich, Israel, Weizmann Institute, author of Foundations of Cryptography.
* Shafi Goldwasser, US and Israel.
* Silvio Micali, US, MIT.
* Rafail Ostrovsky, US, UCLA.
* Charles Rackoff, co-discoverer of zero-knowledge proofs.
* Oded Regev (computer scientist), Oded Regev, inventor of learning with errors.
* Phillip Rogaway, US, UC Davis, co-proposer of the Random oracle model.
* Amit Sahai, US, UCLA.
* Gustavus Simmons, US, Sandia National Laboratories, Sandia, authentication theory.
* Moti Yung, US, Google.
Government cryptographers
* Clifford Cocks, UK,
GCHQ
Government Communications Headquarters, commonly known as GCHQ, is an intelligence and security organisation responsible for providing signals intelligence (SIGINT) and information assurance (IA) to the government and armed forces of the Unit ...
, secret inventor of the algorithm later known as RSA (algorithm), RSA.
* James H. Ellis, UK,
GCHQ
Government Communications Headquarters, commonly known as GCHQ, is an intelligence and security organisation responsible for providing signals intelligence (SIGINT) and information assurance (IA) to the government and armed forces of the Unit ...
, secretly proved the possibility of asymmetric encryption.
* Lowell Frazer, USA,
National Security Agency
The National Security Agency (NSA) is a national-level intelligence agency of the United States Department of Defense, under the authority of the Director of National Intelligence (DNI). The NSA is responsible for global monitoring, collecti ...
* Julia Wetzel, USA,
National Security Agency
The National Security Agency (NSA) is a national-level intelligence agency of the United States Department of Defense, under the authority of the Director of National Intelligence (DNI). The NSA is responsible for global monitoring, collecti ...
* Malcolm Williamson (cryptographer), Malcolm Williamson, UK,
GCHQ
Government Communications Headquarters, commonly known as GCHQ, is an intelligence and security organisation responsible for providing signals intelligence (SIGINT) and information assurance (IA) to the government and armed forces of the Unit ...
, secret inventor of the protocol later known as the Diffie–Hellman key exchange.
Cryptographer businesspeople
* Bruce Schneier, US, CTO and founder of BT Counterpane, Counterpane Internet Security, Inc. and cryptography author.
* Scott Vanstone, Canada, founder of Certicom and elliptic curve cryptography proponent.
See also
*
Cryptography
Cryptography, or cryptology (from grc, , translit=kryptós "hidden, secret"; and ''graphein'', "to write", or ''-logia'', "study", respectively), is the practice and study of techniques for secure communication in the presence of adver ...
References
External links
List of cryptographers' home pages
{{DEFAULTSORT:Cryptographers
Cryptographers,
Lists of people by occupation
Cryptography lists and comparisons