Edward Scheidt

Edward M. Scheidt (born 1939) is a retired Chairman of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) Cryptographic Center and the designer of the cryptographic systems used in the Kryptos sculpture at CIA Headquarters in Langley, Virginia.

Biography

Scheidt was born in 1939 in California. His father worked for the government, and his mother was a switchboard operator at AT&T. He graduated in 1957 from Cor Jesu High School in New Orleans and then joined the Army,[1] where he worked in Signals Intelligence. In 1963, he was hired as a communications officer for the CIA, which began a distinguished 26-year career, retiring in December 1989. Scheidt spent 12 years posted overseas, including serving in Laos in the early 1960s, the Middle East in the late 1960s, and a tour in Southeast Asia. Most often he used one-time pad paper systems of encryption. Scheidt received a B.A. in business administration from the University of Maryland in 1970 and a degree in telecommunications from George Washington University in 1975.

CIA Director William H. Webster referred to Scheidt as "The Deep Throat of Codes." Scheidt is best known for his involvement with Kryptos, a sculpture in the CIA courtyard which contains one of the world's most famous unsolved codes. Kryptos was created by Washington DC sculptor Jim Sanborn, who was commissioned by the CIA in the 1980s to create art around their new Headquarters building in 1988. After Sanborn decided he wanted to incorporate some encrypted messages in his artwork, he was teamed with Scheidt, who was in the process of retiring. Up until that point, Sanborn had never used encryption or text in his work. Scheidt taught various encryption methods to Sanborn, who chose the exact messages to be encrypted. Of the messages on the sculpture, three have been solved, but the fourth section, 97 or 98 characters at the very bottom, remains uncracked. Scheidt has said that he knows the answer, along with Sanborn and "probably someone at the CIA."[2][3][4][5][6]

Coming from a communications background, Ed recognized the changing nature of communication patterns in America as PCs proliferated and were then formed into networks. In the early 1990s, Ed noted that encryption, which originated for primarily one-to-one communications, now faced new and substantially different key management requirements in large network or virtual network environments. It was into this technologically dynamic environment that Ed co-founded TecSec Inc., a software encryption company in 1990 in Vienna, Virginia, where as of 2011 he works as Chief Scientist. One of their first ventures was to manufacture portable satellite versions of the secure "STU-III" telephones used by the government. Scheidt manufactured the first model in his home basement workshop, and approximately 500 were in use worldwide by the United States Foreign Service as of 2002. The company also set out to create an encryption design with its key management that could be cited in standards or use components of standards.

In forming TecSec and building the company's large IP library, he anticipated the flexibility and mobility required of 21st Century communication systems with a key management system that is primarily client-based and much less dependent upon a central server. The relative scalability achieved by this approach, together with encryption at the object level, provides enforced role based access and granularity not otherwise available. Ed remains deeply involved in the company's product development and expanding application solutions, just as he is in general management.

In February 2010 TecSec filed a lawsuit against several large tech vendors claiming infringement of several patents covering encryption technology.[7]

Scheidt is the Chair person for ANSI x9 Data and Information Security standards for US financial services. He has been a speaker on cryptography at Bouchercon, a mystery convention. He volunteers as a local assistant scoutmaster and has been a Council board member. He is also active with the Council's endowment program.

References

  1. ↑ "The People of the CIA: Edward Scheidt". Central Intelligence Agency. 2008. Retrieved May 23, 2011.
  2. ↑ "Interest grows in solving cryptic CIA puzzle after link toDa Vinci Code", June 11, 2005, The Guardian, by Julian Borger
  3. ↑ "Inside Info on Kryptos Codes, January 21, 2005, Wired News
  4. ↑ "Solving the Enigma of Kryptos", January 26, 2005, Wired News, by Kim Zetter
  5. ↑ "Sanborn: 'Kryptos' sculpture was 'an obsession'", June 21, 2005, CNN
  6. ↑ "A Break for Code-Breakers on a C.I.A. Mystery", April 22, 2006, The New York Times
  7. ↑ "Encryption vendor files patent lawsuit against tech giants". ComputerWorld Inc. Retrieved 9 February 2010.

Further reading

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