HYDERABAD: From the time a ‘crypto-war’ between academicians and the US National Security Agency (NSA) existed on whether to publish research work on cryptography, freedom for publishing academic works have greatly transformed felt Edward Martin Hellman, an American cryptologist. While speaking with Express on the sidelines of an event in city, Hellman who is known for his invention of public-key, a cryptographic method to encrypt and decrypt data using public and private keys said that people across the world are doing research on cryptography unlike in the 1970s when it was monopolised by NSA. The 72-year-old academician was in the city to deliver a lecture at IIIT-H on ‘the evolution of public key cryptography’.
“Even if one country would clamp down cryptographic research, it would not have the same effect now when compared to the 70s. If America becomes limited, we have India and there are researchers from everywhere,” Martin Hellman told Express. Widely regarded for creating a secure encryption and decryption system, Hellman said that there is a third crypto-war that is emerging. “The third crypto-war is mostly to do with the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) saying we want exceptional access to data when we have a legitimate court order. It is a repeat of the second crypto-war,” he said.