March 2, 2021
When World War II ended, our nation was totally secure from attack. After investing vast sums to improve our security, we can be destroyed in under an hour. What went wrong? In this age of nuclear weapons, pandemics, and cyberattacks, is national security becoming inseparable from global security? If so, how do our policies need to change?
Stanford Professor Martin E. Hellman is best known for his invention of public key cryptography — the technology that enables secure Internet transactions and that protects literally trillions of dollars in financial transactions every day. In addition to the ACM Turing Award, this work was recognized by many honors including election to the National Academy of Engineering and induction into the National Inventor’s Hall of Fame. Prof. Hellman has a deep interest in the ethics of technology development, and has written and lectured extensively on that subject.