“The Moral Character of Cryptographic Work”
E437870
“The Moral Character of Cryptographic Work” is a widely discussed essay by cryptographer Phillip Rogaway that critiques the political and ethical implications of modern cryptography and calls for a more socially responsible practice of the field.
All labels observed (1)
| Label | Occurrences |
|---|---|
| “The Moral Character of Cryptographic Work” canonical | 1 |
How this entity was disambiguated
This entity first appeared as the object of triple T4405005 — resolving that mention is where its identity was fixed. The disambiguator weighed these candidate entities and picked the highlighted one (or “None”, minting a new entity). This is how homonymy is resolved: the same surface form can point to different entities.
NED1
Entity disambiguation (via context triple)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: “The Moral Character of Cryptographic Work” Context triple: [Phillip Rogaway, notableWork, “The Moral Character of Cryptographic Work”]
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A.
New Directions in Cryptography
New Directions in Cryptography is a landmark 1976 paper that introduced the concepts of public-key cryptography and digital signatures, fundamentally reshaping modern cryptography and secure communications.
-
B.
the "Reflections on Trusting Trust" lecture and paper
"Reflections on Trusting Trust" is Ken Thompson’s influential 1984 Turing Award lecture and paper that exposed how a compiler could be maliciously modified to invisibly insert security vulnerabilities, fundamentally shaping thinking about software trust and supply-chain security.
-
C.
IACR Cryptology ePrint Archive
The IACR Cryptology ePrint Archive is an online repository that provides open-access preprints and technical reports in cryptology and information security research.
-
D.
Merkle puzzles
Merkle puzzles are an early cryptographic protocol that introduced the concept of public-key exchange by allowing two parties to establish a shared secret over an insecure channel using computationally asymmetric “puzzle” problems.
-
E.
Secrecy, Authentication, and Public Key Systems
"Secrecy, Authentication, and Public Key Systems" is Ralph Merkle's influential doctoral thesis that helped lay the foundations of modern public-key cryptography and secure communication protocols.
- F. None of above. chosen
- G. Unsure - the case is ambiguous/there is not enough information to decide.
NED2
Entity disambiguation (via description)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: “The Moral Character of Cryptographic Work” Target entity description: “The Moral Character of Cryptographic Work” is a widely discussed essay by cryptographer Phillip Rogaway that critiques the political and ethical implications of modern cryptography and calls for a more socially responsible practice of the field.
-
A.
New Directions in Cryptography
New Directions in Cryptography is a landmark 1976 paper that introduced the concepts of public-key cryptography and digital signatures, fundamentally reshaping modern cryptography and secure communications.
-
B.
the "Reflections on Trusting Trust" lecture and paper
"Reflections on Trusting Trust" is Ken Thompson’s influential 1984 Turing Award lecture and paper that exposed how a compiler could be maliciously modified to invisibly insert security vulnerabilities, fundamentally shaping thinking about software trust and supply-chain security.
-
C.
IACR Cryptology ePrint Archive
The IACR Cryptology ePrint Archive is an online repository that provides open-access preprints and technical reports in cryptology and information security research.
-
D.
Merkle puzzles
Merkle puzzles are an early cryptographic protocol that introduced the concept of public-key exchange by allowing two parties to establish a shared secret over an insecure channel using computationally asymmetric “puzzle” problems.
-
E.
Secrecy, Authentication, and Public Key Systems
"Secrecy, Authentication, and Public Key Systems" is Ralph Merkle's influential doctoral thesis that helped lay the foundations of modern public-key cryptography and secure communication protocols.
- F. None of above. chosen
Statements (48)
| Predicate | Object |
|---|---|
| instanceOf |
academic paper
ⓘ
essay ⓘ |
| addresses | cryptographic research community ⓘ |
| advocates |
alignment of cryptographic research with public interest
ⓘ
consideration of societal impact in research agendas ⓘ political engagement by cryptographers ⓘ socially responsible cryptography ⓘ |
| argues |
cryptographers share responsibility for uses of their work
ⓘ
cryptography is inherently political ⓘ technical choices in cryptography have moral consequences ⓘ |
| associatedWith | Phillip Rogaway's public talks ⓘ |
| author | Phillip Rogaway NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| callsFor |
ethical reflection in technical education
ⓘ
greater transparency in cryptographic work ⓘ reorientation of cryptographic research priorities ⓘ |
| critiques |
political disengagement of cryptographers
ⓘ
support of surveillance infrastructures ⓘ value-neutral view of cryptography ⓘ |
| documentType | PDF ⓘ |
| field |
applied cryptography
ⓘ
computer science ⓘ technology ethics ⓘ |
| focusesOn |
human rights
ⓘ
mass surveillance ⓘ privacy ⓘ state power ⓘ |
| genre | scholarly essay ⓘ |
| hasPerspective |
critical of status quo in cryptography
ⓘ
normative ethical stance ⓘ |
| hasURL | https://web.cs.ucdavis.edu/~rogaway/papers/moral.pdf ⓘ |
| influencedDiscussionOf |
ethical obligations of cryptographers
ⓘ
norms in security and privacy research ⓘ role of cryptography in surveillance states ⓘ |
| isWidelyDiscussedIn |
computer security conferences
ⓘ
cryptography community ⓘ technology ethics debates ⓘ |
| language | English ⓘ |
| length | long-form essay ⓘ |
| mainTopic |
cryptography
ⓘ
ethics of technology ⓘ politics of cryptography ⓘ social responsibility of scientists ⓘ |
| mentions |
NSA surveillance
ⓘ
post-9/11 security policies ⓘ |
| publicationYear | 2015 ⓘ |
| publishedInContextOf | post-Snowden surveillance revelations ⓘ |
| targetAudience |
researchers in cryptography and security
ⓘ
students of computer science and cryptography ⓘ |
How these facts were elicited
The pipeline generated the facts above by prompting gpt-5.1 with this entity's name + description and the instruction below.
Instruction
You are a knowledge base construction expert. Given a subject entity and a description of it, return factual statements that you know for the subject as a JSON list of dictionaries(triples), where keys must be "subject", "predicate" and "object". The number of facts may be very high, between 25 to 50 or more, for very popular subjects. For less popular subjects, the number of facts can be very low, like 5 or 10. # Requirements - If you don't know the subject at all, return an empty list. - If the subject is not a named entity, return an empty list. - Include at least one triple where predicate is "instanceOf". - Do not get too wordy. - Separate several objects into multiple triples with one object.
Input
Subject: “The Moral Character of Cryptographic Work” Description of subject: “The Moral Character of Cryptographic Work” is a widely discussed essay by cryptographer Phillip Rogaway that critiques the political and ethical implications of modern cryptography and calls for a more socially responsible practice of the field.
Referenced by (1)
Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.