Mathematicians vs. Cryptographers

Neal Koblitz publishes what is, honestly, a rant about the cryptography field. The interesting part to me is when he talks about the uneasy relationship between mathematicians and cryptographers. Cryptographers, he says, toss the term “provable security” around much too often, publish inconsequential papers far too often, and are generally sloppy about their research.

I can’t say I disagree with any of that. Cryptographers come either from mathematics or computer science. The former — like Koblitz — are far more rigorous than the latter, but the latter tend to come up with much more practical systems.

EDITED TO ADD (9/28): Rebuttals by Oded Goldreich, Hugo Krawczyk, Jonathan Katz, Luca Trevisan, and Boaz Barak.

EDITED TO ADD (10/6): Kevin McCurley comments.

Posted on September 27, 2007 at 3:38 PM • 53 Comments