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Edward Scheidt

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Edward Scheidt
Born
Edward Micheal Scheidt[1]

(1939-07-20)July 20, 1939
San Bernardino County, California[1]
EducationTulane University[2]
Alma materUniversity of Maryland George Washington University
OccupationCommunications security
Known forKryptos
SpouseMary Jane Shope[2]
Parent(s)Edward Henry Scheidt (1892-1976), Ruth Christine Adema (1911-2001) [3][4][5][6]
Espionage activity
CountryUnited States
Service branchCentral Intelligence Agency
Service years1963-1989

Edward Michael Scheidt[7] 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.

Early life

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Scheidt was born July 20, 1939, in San Bernardino County. He graduated in 1957 from Cor Jesu High School in New Orleans[8] and then joined the Army,[9] where he worked in Signals Intelligence.

CIA

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In 1963, he was hired as a communications officer for the CIA, in the Office of Communications, which began a 26-year career, after which he retired in December 1989. Scheidt spent 12 years posted overseas, including serving in Vientiane from 1963,[10] Damascus and Tel Aviv from 1966 to 1968,[11][12][13] Manila from 1971 to 1973,[14][15] and Athens from 1978 to 1980.[16][17]

Most often he used one-time pad paper systems of encryption.[9]

Scheidt received a B.A. in business administration from the University of Maryland in 1970 and an M.S. in telecommunications from George Washington University in 1975. In 1974 he was with the Army Communications Service Group[2] and by 1978 he had reached Foreign Service Reserve Level 6.[18]

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, D.C., 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 and was called by then-director William H. Webster "The Wizard of Codes".[19] 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."[20][21][22][23][24]

In 1991, journalist Bill Gertz referred to Scheidt as the "Deep Throat of Codes" while describing his clandestine meetings with Sanborn.[25] This nickname was later said to have been applied to Scheidt by Webster[26][6] before being added to Scheidt's bio on the TecSec website by 2015.[27]

TecSec

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In the early 1990s, Scheidt 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. As of March 2023 he was senior security development executive vice president at Tecsec.[28]

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. He holds 36 patents in cryptographic technologies through TecSec from 1993 to 2015.[29]

In February 2010 TecSec filed a lawsuit against several large tech vendors claiming infringement of several patents covering encryption technology.[30] The case concluded in 2019 with Adobe paying no damages.[31]

Other

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As of September 2020, Scheidt was vice chair, ANSI X9F for global security standards, Accredited Standards Committee X9, which develops and promotes standards for the US financial services industry.[32] Scheidt is also convenor of ISO TC68/SC2/Working group (WG) 17 for the creation of the digital currency security Technical Specification international standard. WG17 includes representation from various countries and commercial interest. As convenor of WG17, Scheidt represents ISO to ITU for their Fiat digital currency efforts.[33]

In honor of the 100th Anniversary of the Knights of Columbus in the Commonwealth of Virginia, Charter Grand Knight Edward M. Scheidt conceived a symbolic representation known as the Virginia Ecumenical Chalice, which was subsequently presented to and blessed by Pope John Paul II in 2001.[34]

References

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  1. ^ a b "California Birth Index". Retrieved 2023-07-21.
  2. ^ a b c "Mary J. Shope, Edward Scheidt Exchange Vows". Altoona Mirror. Altoona, PA. July 5, 1974. p. 18.
  3. ^ "First Child Born To Edward Scheidts". Altoona Mirror. Altoona, PA. July 24, 1975. p. 26.
  4. ^ "H Obituaries Orleans Parish Louisiana". USGenWeb Archives. Retrieved 2023-07-18.
  5. ^ "Edward Scheidt". MyHeritage. Retrieved 2023-07-18.
  6. ^ a b Schaeffer, Jonathan (2008). One Jump Ahead (2nd ed.). Springer. p. 178. ISBN 9780387765761. Retrieved 16 August 2021. Note: This source incorrectly identifies Edward M. Scheidt's father as FBI agent Edward F. Scheidt. The correct information is given in the other references.
  7. ^ Different sources cite different middle names. See Altoona Mirror (Michael) and California Birth Index (Micheal).
  8. ^ "Even the Teacher Can't Decipher It". Crimson Shield. October 2010. Retrieved 2023-07-21.
  9. ^ a b "The People of the CIA: Edward Scheidt". Central Intelligence Agency. 2008. Archived from the original on 2009-01-14. Retrieved May 23, 2011.
  10. ^ Department of State Newsletter. 1963. p. 63. Retrieved 2023-07-18.
  11. ^ Department of State Newsletter. 1966. p. 63. Retrieved 2023-07-18.
  12. ^ Department of State Newsletter. 1967. p. 62. Retrieved 2023-07-18.
  13. ^ Department of State Newsletter. 1968. p. 55. Retrieved 2023-07-18.
  14. ^ Department of State Newsletter. 1971. p. 78. Retrieved 2023-07-18.
  15. ^ Department of State Newsletter. 1973. p. 63. Retrieved 2023-07-18.
  16. ^ Department of State Newsletter. 1978. p. 45. Retrieved 2023-07-18.
  17. ^ Department of State Newsletter. 1980. p. 29. Retrieved 2023-07-18.
  18. ^ Foreign Service Classification List. Department of State. 1978. p. 38. Retrieved 2023-07-18.
  19. ^ "Cracking the Code of a CIA Sculpture", John Schwartz, July 19, 1999, Page A01, Washington Post
  20. ^ "Interest grows in solving cryptic CIA puzzle after link toDa Vinci Code", June 11, 2005, The Guardian, by Julian Borger
  21. ^ "Inside Info on Kryptos Codes, January 21, 2005, Wired News
  22. ^ "Solving the Enigma of Kryptos", January 26, 2005, Wired News, by Kim Zetter
  23. ^ "Sanborn: 'Kryptos' sculpture was 'an obsession'", June 21, 2005, CNN
  24. ^ "A Break for Code-Breakers on a C.I.A. Mystery", April 22, 2006, The New York Times
  25. ^ Gertz, Bill (8 April 1991). "Cryptic sculpture spooks CIA employees". Washington Times. Mr. Sanborn told the AP the message was written by a retired CIA cryptographer, which would seem to rule out Mr. Clancy. The sculptor and the Deep Throat of codes conducted business only at secret locations, never by telephone or in writing.
  26. ^ Wilson, John (2009-02-02). "Kryptos hints". Archived from the original on 2009-02-02. Retrieved 2023-07-21. Note: The source refers to notes from Elonka Dunin in 2003.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link)
  27. ^ "TecSec About". Archived from the original on 2015-04-21. Retrieved 16 August 2021.
  28. ^ "X9 Seeks Participants for New Research into Bank-held Crypto Asset Risks" (Press release). 2023-03-08. Retrieved 2023-07-18.
  29. ^ "Google Patents". Retrieved 2023-07-18.
  30. ^ "Encryption vendor files patent lawsuit against tech giants". ComputerWorld Inc. 9 February 2010. Retrieved 9 February 2010.
  31. ^ Scott Graham (2019-06-21). "Latham whittles long running patent case down to zero". Retrieved 2023-07-18.
  32. ^ "Public Key Cryptography for the Financial Services Industry—The Elliptic Curve Digital Signature Algorithm" (PDF). Retrieved 12 November 2020.
  33. ^ "ISO/TC 68/SC 2 Financial Services, security". Retrieved 12 November 2020.
  34. ^ "The Virginia Knights of Columbus Ecumenical Chalice" (PDF). Knights of Columbus. 2001. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2023-02-04. Retrieved 2023-07-18.

Further reading

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