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Code that helped end Apartheid

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358 points impish9208 | 9 comments | 18 Oct 24 13:05 UTC | HN request time: 0.215s | source | bottom
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rsynnott ◴[18 Oct 24 13:53 UTC] No.41879490[source]▶
You know it's _proper_ vintage crypto code because it uses the now very unfashionable word 'encipher'.
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1. quuxplusone ◴[18 Oct 24 14:46 UTC] No.41879923[source]▶
Funny but also thought-provoking! When did the verb "encipher" give way to "encrypt," and why? I might enjoy reading a well-researched piece on that subject.
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2. jgrahamc ◴[18 Oct 24 14:49 UTC] No.41879953[source]▶
I don't know why but here's when: https://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=encipher%2Cenc...
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3. seanw444 ◴[18 Oct 24 15:03 UTC] No.41880067[source]▶
Wow. Apparently that's when AES and Triple DES were introduced, which can't be coincidental.
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4. iamthepieman ◴[18 Oct 24 15:04 UTC] No.41880081[source]▶
So basically encipher was never used in the context of the web. And the web is what made encrypt popular separate from encipher. It does look like maybe encipher was possibly going to take off but encrypt stepped on its head.
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5. ◴[18 Oct 24 15:11 UTC] No.41880155[source]▶
6. macobrien ◴[18 Oct 24 17:21 UTC] No.41881512{3}[source]▶
Interestingly, the basis of web encryption does use the term "encipherment" -- the `KeyUsage` field of X.509 certificates has `keyEncipherment` and `dataEncipherment` flags.
7. kylecazar ◴[18 Oct 24 17:40 UTC] No.41881702{3}[source]▶
Yeah... Data Encryption Standard published in the late '70s, and given its adoption, I assume solidified the use of 'encryption' in this context.
8. pbsd ◴[19 Oct 24 00:25 UTC] No.41884646[source]▶
An interesting data point is that Kahn's The codebreakers, from 1967, uses "encipher" everywhere except for various US goverment agency quotes, which use "encrypt."
9. spockz ◴[19 Oct 24 04:31 UTC] No.41885646[source]▶
Interestingly enough we still say “ciphertext” to describe the encrypted “cleartext”.