From: dlv@bwalk.dm.com (Dr.Dimitri Vulis KOTM)
Date: Sat, 23 Aug 1997 05:55:49 +0800
To: cypherpunks@toad.com
Subject: Re: Mathematics > NSA + GCHQ
In-Reply-To: <1.5.4.32.19970822193215.00831fc0@pop.pipeline.com>
Message-ID: <uqwuBe2w165w@bwalk.dm.com>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain



John Young <jya@pipeline.com> writes:

> Along this line:
>
> A few days ago we received an 8-page excerpt from "Shift Register
> Sequences," by Solomon W. Golomb (at USC), Holden-Day, Inc.,
> no date, with a handwritten note:
>
>    NSA has tried to suppress knowledge of this stuff. Nearly all NSA 'good'
>    algorithms are based on this technology.
>
> IANAM, so would any of the mathematicians here give any credibility to
> this claim? We'll scan and put the excerpt on our Web site if worthwhile.
> It's composed of the book's 3 page preface and 5 pages of text and
> diagrams of Chapter 2 on The Shift Register as a Finite State Machine,
> with principal focus on de Bruijn diagrams for shift registers.

The NSA certainly did try to suppress much shift-register-related stuff.

The recent Sandia lawsuit is over shift register stuff.

There are increasingly persistent rumor of a fast factoring algorithm
based on shift registers.

Therefore anything mentioning them is of interest.

But: Was there any info in the package other than the passages from the book?

I don't think it's a good idea to put up chunks of the book - the publisher
might cry copyright infringement, and everybody probably has it anyway.

[I'm about to turn off this box, so I won't see any responses in a while.]

---

Dr.Dimitri Vulis KOTM
Brighton Beach Boardwalk BBS, Forest Hills, N.Y.: +1-718-261-2013, 14.4Kbps