If you depend on a secret for your security, what do you do when the secret is discovered? If it is easy to change, like a cryptographic key, you do so. If it's hard to change, like a cryptographic system or an operating system, you're stuck. You will be vulnerable until you invest the time and money to design another system.

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About Whitfield Diffie

Whitfield Diffie was a contemporary American cryptographer. Bailey Whitfield 'Whit' Diffie ForMemRS is an American cryptographer and mathematician and one of the pioneers of public-key cryptography along with Martin Hellman and Ralph Merkle. Diffie and Hellman's 1976 paper New Directions in Cryptography introduced a radically new method of distributing cryptographic keys, that helped solve key distribution—a fundamental problem in cryptography. Read more on Wikipedia →

Themes

  • Change — Embracing transformation, growth, and new beginnings
  • Time — Reflections on the passage of time and how we spend it
  • Money — Thoughts on wealth, value, and material pursuits

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