Editing Martin Gardner (section)

==Public key cryptography==
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|quote= These new ciphers are not absolutely unbreakable in the sense of the one-time pad. but in practice they are unbreakable in a much stronger sense than any cipher previously designed for widespread use. In principle these new ciphers can be broken. but only by computer programs that run for millions of years!<ref name=tensions>[https://billatnapier.medium.com/the-tensions-around-the-rsa-method-63c91fd9b2ff The Tensions Around The RSA Method] by [[Bill Buchanan (computer scientist)|Bill Buchanan]], [[medium.com]], Jan 9, 2022</ref>
|source= –Martin Gardner
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In his August 1977 column, "A new kind of cipher that would take millions of years to break", Gardner described a new cryptographic system invented by [[Ron Rivest]], [[Adi Shamir]] and [[Leonard Adleman]].<ref name="SIAM">{{cite journal |url=http://www.msri.org/people/members/sara/articles/rsa.pdf |journal=SIAM News |volume=36 |issue=5 |date=June 2003 |title=Still Guarding Secrets after Years of Attacks, RSA Earns Accolades for its Founders |first=Sara |last=Robinson }}</ref><ref name=history>[https://www.livinginternet.com/i/is_crypt_pkc_inv.htm Public Key Cryptography History] Living Internet</ref> The system, based on [[trapdoor function]]s, was known as [[RSA (cryptosystem)|RSA]] (after the three researchers) and has become a component of the majority of secure [[data transmission]] schemes.<ref name="BBC_News"/>  Since RSA is a relatively slow algorithm it is not widely used to directly encrypt data.<ref name=telsy>[https://www.telsy.com/rsa-encryption-cryptography-history-and-uses/ RSA Cryptography: History And Uses] Telsy Communications</ref> More often, it is used to transmit shared keys for [[symmetric-key cryptography]].<ref name=ellis>"[https://medium.com/swlh/the-day-cryptography-changed-forever-1b6aefe8bda7 The Day Cryptography Changed Forever]" by Steven Ellis, [[medium.com]], Jan 6, 2020</ref>

Gardner identified the memorandum that his column was based on and invited readers to write to Rivest to request a copy of it.<ref name=tensions/> Over seven thousand requests came pouring in, some of them from other countries.  This caused significant consternation in the US defense agencies and possible legal problems for Gardner himself.<ref>BBC News (2014): "He also broke the story of the invention of RSA cryptography — the now standard way in which confidential data such as passwords, bank information, and the like, are secured in digital transmission—getting into trouble with the US government in the process."</ref> The [[National Security Agency]] (NSA) asked the RSA team to stop distributing the report and one letter to the IEEE suggested that disseminating such information might be violating the [[Arms Export Control Act]] and the [[International Traffic in Arms Regulations]].<ref name=tensions/>  In the end the defense establishment could provide no legal basis for suppressing the new technology, and when a detailed paper about RSA was published in ''[[Communications of the ACM]]'',<ref>R. L. Rivest, A. Shamir, L. Adleman "[https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/359340.359342 A method for obtaining digital signatures and public-key cryptosystems]" [[Communications of the ACM]], Vol. 21, No. 2, Feb. 1978.</ref> the NSA’s crypto monopoly was effectively terminated.<ref name=ellis/>