Whitfield Diffie

Bailey Whitfield “Whit” Diffie (born the June 5th 1944), American cryptologist. He is one of the pionners of the asymmetrical Cryptographie (use of a pair of Clé S public and private) in collaboration with Martin Hellman and Ralph Merkle.

In 1965, it off receives a Bachelor in Mathématiques with the Massachusetts Institute Technology. In 1976 with the assistance of Martin Hellman, it publishes New Directions in Cryptography . The revolutionary method described in this article makes it possible to solve a problem fundamental in Cryptographie: distribution of the keys. This method will be re-elected thereafter in method of exchange of keys Diffie-Hellman. This principle is also at the origin of methods to more advanced asymmetrical keys like the RSA or ElGamal

Diffie continued its research within Northern Telecom (Nortel) where it dealt with the architecture of the security system PDSO for the networks X.25. In 1991, it joined Sun Microsystems in California where it continues to deal of the security issues and cryptography.

In 1992, it is named Doctor Honoris Causa by the Federal Polytechnic school of Zurich. He is also member of the foundation Marconi. In 1998, he wrote with Susan Laudau a book Privacy one the Line on the phone-tappings and the policy issues related to cryptography.

External bonds

Dr. Whitfield Diffie; Sun Microsystems;
Biography in Wired Magazine

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