Clifford Cocks | |
|---|---|
 Clifford Cocks at the Royal Society admissions day in London, July 2015 | |
| Born | Clifford Christopher Cocks 28 December 1950[1] Prestbury, Cheshire, England, United Kingdom |
| Nationality | British |
| Education | Manchester Grammar School |
| Alma mater | University of Cambridge (BA) |
| Known for | |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Cryptography |
| Institutions | |
Clifford Christopher Cocks CB FRS[2] (born 28 December 1950) is a British mathematician and cryptographer. In the early 1970s, while working at the United Kingdom Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ), he developed an early public-key cryptography (PKC) system. This pre-dated commercial offerings, but due to the classified nature of Cocks' work, it did not become widely known until 1997 when the work was declassified.
As his work was not available for public review until 1997, it had no impact on numerous commercial initiatives relating to Internet security that had been commercially developed and that were well established by 1997. His work was technically aligned with the Diffie–Hellman key exchange and elements of the RSA algorithm; these systems were independently developed and commercialized.[3][4]
- ^ Anon (2016). "Cocks, Clifford Christopher". Who's Who (online Oxford University Press ed.). Oxford: A & C Black. doi:10.1093/ww/9780199540884.013.U261614. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
- ^ Anon (2015). "Mr Clifford Cocks CB FRS". London: Royal Society. Archived from the original on 17 November 2015.
- ^ "Clifford Cocks, James Ellis, and Malcolm Williamson". National Security Agency/Central Security Service. Retrieved 18 November 2023.
- ^ "The Alternative History of Public-Key Cryptography". cryptome.org. Retrieved 18 November 2023.