The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) has granted its 100th Milestone Award to the three men who developed a symmetric key cryptography system some ten years before Arpanet, Bitnet and Milnet, the precursors of today's internet, started rolling.
The trio - Clifford Cocks, James Ellis and Malcolm Williamson - are credited with coming up with the idea that makes transactions safe on today's internet. Plaques in their honour have been unveiled at GCHQ and the Pittville Pump Rooms in Cheltenham.
Infosecurity understands that only Mr Cocks attended today's ceremony, as Mr Williamson now lives in California, whilst, sadly, Mr Ellis died in the late 1990s.
According to GCHQ, because of secrecy surrounding the work of the trio, it took until 1997 - just after Mr Ellis passed way - until their cryptography project was declassified and made public.
Up until that point a group of American researchers from Stanford University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology had been credited with the discovery.
The plaques read:
`At GCHQ, by 1975 James Ellis had proved that a symmetric secret-key system is unnecessary and Clifford Cocks with Malcolm Williamson showed how such `public-key cryptography' could be achieved. Until then it was believed that secure communication was impossible without exchange of a secret key, with key distribution as a major impediment. With these discoveries the essential principles were known but were kept secret until 1997.'
Commenting on his long-overdue award, Mr Cocks said: "It is great to see how widespread and significant the use of public key cryptography has become and I am honoured that the IEEE have decided to recognise its discovery at Cheltenham."
"James Ellis would have been especially gratified to know that his work is to receive such acknowledgement", he added.