Clifford Cocks Scientist

Clifford Christopher Cocks, CB, (born 28 December 1950) is a British mathematician and cryptographer at Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ).He discovered the widely used encryption algorithm now commonly known as RSA, about three years before it was independently rediscovered by Rivest, Shamir, and Adleman at MIT. He has not been generally recognised for this achievement because his work was classified information, and therefore not released to the public at the time.

Personal facts

Birth dateDecember 28, 1950
Birth place
Prestbury Cheshire
Nationality
United Kingdom
Known for
RSA (cryptosystem)

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