Frank Miller: Inventor of the One-Time Pad [pdf]

huxley · on May 24, 2014

FYI, it's this Frank Miller: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frank_Miller_(cryptography)

Not this one: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frank_Miller_(comics)

h1karu · on May 24, 2014

I hate to break it to you but ancient cultures used OTP systems for thousands of years before this guy supposedly invented it. The ancient Egyptians for example would create a pad, use it to encrypt a secret with a numeric shift cypher, then break the pad into multiple pieces each of which would be guarded in a different temple. This has been proven and there are other examples in the ancient world.

christianbryant · on May 25, 2014

I'm pretty sure that is acknowledged in good cryptography texts. It's actually what draws me to the field, because, though my career is rooted in tech, I'm fascinated with what we're capable of _without_ computers. Excellent point.

maxerickson · on May 25, 2014

The same author recently published a paper about the work Vernam and Mauborgne were doing:

https://www.cs.columbia.edu/~smb/blog//2014-05/2014-05-16.ht...

It didn't get any traction when I submitted it.

(I'm copying and pasting those names, I think this sort of history is neat to look at but certainly don't know much of it)