WHO DID IT?
One of our information security “ancestors” invented the world’s only completely secure means of communication. And now we’re surrounded — night and day — by the “descendants” of that technology in new forms. It keeps our online transactions safe, and may have a renewed importance as we enter the quantum computing era.
We thought we knew who invented it, but history had a trick or two up its sleeve. It’s a bit like the mystery murder game, Clue.
Who?
What?
When?
Where?
Why?
How?
How Secure Was It?
Was It Commercially Successful?
What Was The Underlying Technology?
How Efficient Was Its Use? (always inefficient, or could it be massively efficient?)
Answers to all of these questions have been updated in the past 12 years.
Because of Frank Miller's implementation with a Telegraphic Code book, the use of a One-Time Pad could be, and often was, *outrageously* efficient, compared to the later use (with a cipher) which was painfully *inefficient.* This difference is only now becoming clear, since our understanding of who Frank Miller was and what he did is only about 12-13 years old.
The history of infosec got rewritten and we're all just trying to catch up.
I asked an infographic designer to create a comparison between our Old Understanding (invented in 1917) vs. our New Understanding (happened 35 years earlier, in 1882).
What do you think? Please feel free to offer your suggestions or thoughts to make this infographic more useful.
If you’d like to verify for yourself how efficient the use of a One-Time Pad could be, feel free to take this quick, 4-step challenge:
https://loistavainfosecurity.com/blog/f/one-time-pads-%E2%80%94-how-efficient-were-they
#OneTimePad
#Infosec
#infoGraphics
#Cryptography