[Congressional Record Volume 162, Number 43 (Thursday, March 17, 2016)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E338-E339]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




 RECOGNIZING MARTIN E. HELLMAN AND WHITFIELD DIFFIE, RECIPIENTS OF THE 
                              TURING AWARD

                                 ______
                                 

                          HON. JERRY McNERNEY

                             of california

                    in the house of representatives

                        Thursday, March 17, 2016

  Mr. McNERNEY. Mr. Speaker, I ask my colleagues to join me in 
recognizing Martin E. Hellman and Whitfield Diffie for receiving the 
2015 Association of Computing Machinery's A.M. Turing Award for their 
major contributions to modern cryptography.
  Mr. Hellman is Professor Emeritus of Electrical Engineering at 
Stanford University and Mr. Diffie is former Vice President and Chief 
Privacy Security Officer of Sun Microsystems. Named in honor of Alan M. 
Turing, the influential British mathematician who articulated the 
mathematical foundation and limitations of computing, this annual award 
is often described as the Nobel Prize of computing.
  Forty years ago, Mr. Hellman and Mr. Diffie's groundbreaking paper, 
``New Directions in Cryptography,'' introduced the idea of public-key 
cryptography, which has proven critical for safely transmitting 
information across the Internet. Public-key cryptography ensures that a 
message can be securely transmitted online such that only the intended 
recipient is able to view the message. This is achieved through a pair 
of mathematically related keys, one that is public and one that is 
private. Although anyone wishing to send a message to a certain 
recipient can use that recipient's readily available public key to 
encrypt the message, the message can only be decrypted with the 
recipient's securely held private key. Today, thanks to Mr. Hellman and 
Mr. Diffie's crucial work, we are able to send emails, submit payments 
on e-commerce websites, and use online tools to check our bank 
statements and health records, while ensuring that the information 
transmitted remains private.
  Mr. Hellman and Mr. Diffie have also received the Institute of 
Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) Hamming Medal, the Marconi 
International Fellowship Award, the Franklin Institute's Levy Medal, 
and the IEEE Donald G. Fink Award for their work on public-key 
cryptography. Additionally, they have each been recipients of other 
prominent awards and honors for their significant contributions to the 
important area of digital security.

[[Page E339]]

  I ask my colleagues to join me in congratulating Mr. Hellman and Mr. 
Diffie and thanking them for their outstanding work.

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