MITs The Weather Oldest and Largest Today: Partly sunny, 85°F (29°C) Tonight: Clear, 65°F (18°C) Newspaper Tomorrow: Sunny, 80°F (29°C) 2 .41W," :1t.-, 121tw' W Details, Page ·h··--: .22 99--4- Wisdom Awarded MacArthur Grant By Sarah Yo Keightley "across the board," in fields ranging EDITOR IN CHIEF from astronomy to zoology, politics Professor of Earth, Atmospheric, to poetry. The recipients are both in and Planetary Sciences Jack Wis- and out of academia, she added. dom was recently named one of this The nominations process makes year's 20 MacArthur Prize Fellows. the grants unique, Stimpson said. Through the John D. and Cather- Each year the foundation selects ine T. MacArthur Foundation Wis- 100 anonymous scouts to keep a dom will be awarded a $260,000. look out for likely fellows. These grant over the next five years. He people then write a letter of nomina- was told about the award on June 8. tion to the foundation. "My main emotional reaction is Wisdom said that because he [the grant is] quite an honor and an was nominated anonymously, he object of great generosity," Wisdom "had no real idea it was happening," said. "It's good inspiration to do making the grant a "very nice sur- more work and do better science." prise" Wisdom uses nonlinear dynam- The MacArthur Prize Fellows ics methods, or chaos, to understand program started in 1981, Stimpson the dynamics of the solar system. said. Each year 20 to 40 awards are According to Director of the Fel- given out, she said. The fellowships lows Program Catharine Stimpson, the grants are given to individuals Grant, Page I11 .1 ,.r:..",: · II PEIYeirp·fiu~p~obrta. 1085&[t Rele-$sed ..:~ll,/1.,,1'"' '~5;~',.<~- -....: ~.~'',~~%... ,..(".,:.,..~.. -. :-:~: -..x· " ~~,.>~,.~ ,~~,zo:,--:..~ ?)~ ~,'.~-:/::-',',;.,.,'.-. ..~::.~ ' Tsk Force sports By Daniel C. Stevenson PGP uses public key encryption the public key. This provides for ASSOCIA TE NEWS EDITOR authentic digital "signatures" of mes- Last month MIT issued a new, Conventional "single-key" cryp- sages and files, Zimmerman said. On Femaid Studies free version of the popular data tosystems use one key to code and studies. encryption program PGP, which decode data, according to Zimmer- September format change By Abhilash R. Vaishnav nutritional STAFF REPORTER The task force met for four stands for "pretty good privacy." man. To ensure privacy, this single A deliberate change to PGP Ver- The release of the PGP Version key must be transmitted via secure sion 2.6 will occur on Sept. I that is At a news conference on May 9, months before issuing its report. "In the best 2.6 software resolved a potential channels so both parties are using intended to "discourage PGP users the Task Force on Human Subject According to the report, of the experts whose opin- patent conflict between an older ver- the same key to decode the actual in the U.S. from using [the previous Research announced its conclusion judgment by the task force, of PGP and patents held by message, which could be sent over version] PGP 2.3a, which potentially that the subjects in the radiation ions were sought sion were MIT and Stanford University for the insecure channels. infringes patents," according to the experiments done by MIT and Har- no significant health effects by the research subjects as RSA data encryption algorithm used Public key encryption allows information document. RSA Data vard University researchers in the incurred I -. n Tan.s -f.,t . * fas olv "e/xcharn- fuies or mar- not exposed to a direct result of the nutritional . .l..Tl I.. ov, .- vi Perrlo o S,,erity Inc., the company which early 1950s were uy Ii research studies in which radioac- this conflict by granting a free sages with privacy, authentication, supplies the RSAREF Cryptographic I dangerous levels of radiation. calcium and iron tracers were license for non-commercial use of and convenience," Zimnerman Toolkit used in the PGP Version 2.6 The announcement was made at tive used." the software package on computer wrote in the PGP manual. Public key software, would not support the new the Walter E. Fernald State School pleased that the task force networks in the United States. encryption does not require secure PGP without the format change, in Waltham, Mass., which is where "I am confirmed MIT's initial impres- Encryption programs such as channels because every user has two according to the document. the experiments took place. has Professor sion that no harm was done to the PGP are used to protect files and keys: a private key and a public key. The change makes the new ver- In the 1950s, the late participants in the cereal nutrition electronic messages so that only the The public and private keys sion unable to completely inter- of Nutrition Robert S. Harris studied and iron studies that were the initial focus of intended recipient can decode the complement each other by unlock- operate with the old, potentially the absorption of calcium publicity," said Vice President and document. Encryption is also used ing the code that the other makes, patent-infringing version, according by feeding 125 mentally retarded Dean for Research J. David Litster to authenticate the sender of elec- Zimmerman said. In addition, to the document. patients of the Fernald school milk PhD '65 in a statement. tronic messages. knowledge of the public key does After Sept. 1, PGP will produce and cereal that contained radioactive Also in the statement, MIT News MIT holds the 1983 RSA patent not aid in discovering the private a slightly different data format. The tracers. Office Director Kenneth D. Camp- and exclusively licensed it to Public key, allowing the public key to be program will still be able to read These experiments were first bell said that MiT nutrition research Partners of California for sale widely distributed. and process messages, signatures, made public in late 1993 when Key had used less than one billionth of sub-licensing of the RSA public A message sender encrypts a mes- and keys produced under the old Energy Secretary Hazel O'Leary and an ounce of radioactive iron and cal- key cryptosystem. PGP was written sage with the recipient's public key format, but it will produce data declassified thousands of govern- aInd VIU,,,i-..m in-.. aa o-kserving v.n, l of" . __.cere to-..... chart Philip Zimmerman, a private so that only the recipient can decode using the new format, according to menti duuinciiLt aiOuLt rauilatil by the body's absorption of these ele- programmer, using an independent- the message using their private key. the PGP manual. radiation testing. In January, Philip ments. The exposure to radiation ly developed implementation of the Alternatively, the .sender can encrypt The potential patent infringe- Campbell, the commissioner of the wrote a message with their private key, Department of Mental Health, had RSA algorithm, Zimmerman Fernald, Page 11 in the PGP Version 2.6 manual. which can then only be decoded with PGP, Page 11 the task force investigate these . I .........!. Ul II: Public Key Partners contended !1!1·I --- II"·~··II~qp~p. -'I i, - . -. ... .... m . .,-.... .. ~-C- ~P"IBLI ' . I .. I :Z that Zimmerman's PGP conflicted * -I ! with the RSA patent license, though Zimmerman said he is "convinced that publishing PGP the way I did ::·: does not violate patent law." Since ;... "0 '''ag" '1 w4; n May 22, Zimmerman has been the :-1~--;T- ·-,. i :· ; ·.- ,;,;~ -j :i-~: - ·' ·.--~. .-..........;:., . -:· :-- :r: _ -.~ -~:,]T · :. .···-··:I·-. -·i target of a U.S. Customs criminal i investigation regarding the export :""··,;I, ::- controls on encryption software, *\:teOfl t<U C ^ B.; . .-a-,. c ·:a'i;· according to the manual. ,...·-.··.·- An information document about - -. The I1nstitut128themenelemien exercises took plac on ;c:-. s4 .grautO :-i·.·: PGP provided by MIT and written - ^May2.72 aA2-4 .- s^en^ d _stOtel) '''::' by Professor of Electrical Engineer- .;:.:^ae 4itujf ,fiLthe Si Hs.Muse- ing and Computer Science Harold 0;^ide it-of the ,Propet Mohammed}:., Abelson '73, Jeffrey I. Schiller '79 .;f~ :n d-I NAga',a ; of Information Systems, Brian A. | "l -,-,'g:.imh...a,' i^i'.d e:d'. LaMacchia G, and Derek A. Atkins I tominmenctintro, .gant-'inhK'isw bi,:.eeng .u G said that using the older versions -:tht-as;ayng:,2:-l~t~bif~oslt T ' A"aCCead '.tj to s.gn X.er ,tube': }T.,-h --1Xg;.-:-was' ecid1;oh b w..''fil ,*d. :.;. fas-Dpng< -aier ,Hw Uni~"-_ -'~ -T-bog-. h.- of PGP "potentially infringes k, I patents licensed exclusively to Pub- lic Key-Partners" and the "sticky -. <. ms>the..fer spenhwas ;athe.rauat o patent situation has deterred the spread of PGP." -.-ofrou#H-i ~ iigwup;;~hs-lkkita tll hi oit-.^ - · - --X ikisian ';1s, a ;Xrmner-,,r~eP,,i iCjof,.;the ,SQViet.>1O,:ad it is "This agreement [to release a 7 free version of PGP] solves the ec.j i. h dulv,-- problem of software being distrib- : -Muslim,^i+e -gK~iaisaidiSince the. llapse of the Soviet Union, uted on the Internet which potential- -: sajsi>^tavicasnd-2pts tinc-olems. ;d theex- -- - -- ly infringed the intellectual property -ni Inistan^c: three-tultarcsaes-. encountering one another. ,___. .-. ... :-* * .I , THOMAS R. KARLOT.,E TECH to the graduates at of MIT and the licensee, RSA," said : :.. - . - -: .-; -.- *,. .- -.. Ce - ee-a - .. 1- President Charles M.. V-est gives i:chYarge -. - . - ap 1sp. Vice President for Information Sys- -.---:- : -- - : - :- : - l l. Chistreomnn- the May 27th Commencement exercises. , . .' ... A__ 'A ~-. -- ..- mof :----__ _·_ I - --C- _a tems James D. Bruce '60. LI- i ··-· p·-·· ·· _ II __ Page 2 THE TECH June 22, 1994 I- _WORLD & NATIONi__ Lesbian. Mother Regmins Clintoen Is Skenti al Aholit Custody of Son LOS ANGELES TIMES WASHINGTON N.0* Korea'sJ.^8 9J Pledges ^ .COlV^€& to Ca-rtwerX1 A Virginia mother whose young son was taken away last year because she lives with another lesbian won the right to regain custody By John M.