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The following archive was created by hippie-mail 7.98617-22 on Sat Apr 10 1999 - 01:18:03
James Petts (jpetts@celltech.co.uk)
Wed, 13 Jan 1999 14:51:22 -0000
This appeared on the BBC web site:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/sci/tech/newsid_254000/254236.stm
A caption below one of the photographs reads:
"The prize judges could not completely understand
the 'brilliant' code "
News report below...
"Making your email secret is now 30 times faster, but the innovation
has come not from a multinational computer computer but a schoolgirl
from Blarney, Ireland. Sarah Flannery, 16, has developed a brand
new mathematical procedure for encrypting internet communication.
"The algorithm is based on matrices," her father told BBC News
Online. Dr David Flannery is a mathematics lecturer at Cork
Institute of Technology, Ireland.
"Sarah has a very good understanding of the mathematical principles
involved, but to call her a genius or a prodigy is overstated and
she doesn't want that herself.
But her number-crunching feat is undoubtedly remarkable and won her
the top prize at the Irish Young Scientists and Technology Exhibition.
International job and scholarship offers have flooded in, said Dr
Flannery. Last year, Ms Flannery's cryptography skill took her to Fort
Worth, Texas, as the winner of an Intel prize.
Even when high security levels are required, her code can encrypt a
letter in just one minute - a widely used encryption standard called
RSA would take 30 minutes. "But she has also proven that her code is
as secure as RSA," says Dr Flannery. "It wouldn't be worth a hat of
straw if it was not."
Ms Flannery currently has a bad cold and has not had time to consider
the advice of the judges to patent the code. "She wouldn't mind being
rich but she wants to stress the great joy that the project has given
her," says Dr Flannery. She may publish the work to make it freely
available to all.
Her code is called Cayley-Purser after Arthur Cayley, a 19th century
Cambridge expert on matrices, and Michael Purser, a cryptographer from
Trinity College, Dublin, who provided inspiration for Ms Flannery. "
Is that the slithering of well-greased ophidians I hear?
James Petts
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The following archive was created by hippie-mail 7.98617-22 on Sat Apr 10 1999 - 01:18:03