UW-PIMS Mathematics Colloquium: Neal Koblitz

I will describe some scary moments that have occurred in the history of elliptic curve cryptography almost from its inception; talk about some of the ironies of controversies in cryptography -- such as RSA's role as defender of strong encryption; and comment on the complicated role of the NSA in cryptography. At the end I will describe some weird recent conversations I have had relating to the NSA.