For their revolutionary research paper "New Directions in Cryptography" in 1976, and with it the invention of public key cryptography, the researchers Whitfield Diffie and Martin E. Hellman have been awarded the ACM A.C. Turing Award, ie. the Nobel Prize in Computing. http://www.acm.org/media-center/2016/march/turing-award-2015 " NEW YORK, March 1, 2016 – ACM, the Association for Computing Machinery today named Whitfield Diffie, former Chief Security Officer of Sun Microsystems and Martin E. Hellman, Professor Emeritus of Electrical Engineering at Stanford University, recipients of the 2015 ACM A.M. Turing Award for critical contributions to modern cryptography [...] " http://www.acm.org/awards/2015-turing " CRYPTOGRAPHY PIONEERS RECEIVE ACM A.M. TURING AWARD Diffie and Hellman's Invention of Public-Key Cryptography and Digital Signatures Revolutionized Computer Security [...] The ACM Turing Award, often referred to as the "Nobel Prize of Computing," carries a $1 million prize with financial support provided by Google, Inc. It is named for Alan M. Turing, the British mathematician who articulated the mathematical foundation and limits of computing and who was a key contributor to the Allied cryptoanalysis of the German Enigma cipher during World War II. "Today, the subject of encryption dominates the media, is viewed as a matter of national security, impacts government-private sector relations, and attracts billions of dollars in research and development," said ACM President Alexander L. Wolf. "In 1976, Diffie and Hellman imagined a future where people would regularly communicate through electronic networks and be vulnerable to having their communications stolen or altered. Now, after nearly 40 years, we see that their forecasts were remarkably prescient." [...] In addition to laying the foundation for today's online security industry and establishing cryptography as a leading discipline within computer science, Diffie and Hellman's work made encryption technologies accessible to individuals and companies. ACM will present the 2015 A.M. Turing Award at its annual Awards Banquet on June 11 in San Francisco, Calif. "