{"id":407,"date":"2018-01-03T10:21:00","date_gmt":"2018-01-03T15:21:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.ams.org\/capitalcurrents\/?p=407"},"modified":"2018-01-03T10:21:00","modified_gmt":"2018-01-03T15:21:00","slug":"of-mathematics-congressional-briefings-and-president-trumps-national-security-strategy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.ams.org\/capitalcurrents\/2018\/01\/03\/of-mathematics-congressional-briefings-and-president-trumps-national-security-strategy\/","title":{"rendered":"Of Mathematics, Congressional Briefings, and President Trump\u2019s National Security Strategy"},"content":{"rendered":"
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On December 6, Shafi Goldwasser — RSA Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at MIT — spoke at the U.S. Capitol on \u201cCryptography: How to Enable Privacy in a Data-Driven World.\u201d\u00a0 Dr. Goldwasser will take up a new post on January 1, 2018 as director of the Simons Institute for the Theory of Computing at the University of California, Berkeley; the Simons Institute made a film<\/a> of Dr. Goldwasser\u2019s experience visiting \u201cthe Hill\u201d and with members of Congress. Her talk was the latest in our biennial Congressional Briefings<\/a> series run jointly with the Mathematical Sciences Research Institute (MSRI).<\/p>\n

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (CA 12) and Representatives Jerry McNerney (CA 9) and Daniel Lipinski (IL 3) were on hand to give remarks and provide their support for the mathematical sciences and federal funding of basic scientific research.<\/p>\n

Our next briefing will take place in April or May; stay tuned!<\/p>\n

Dr. Goldwasser\u2019s pioneering work in the field of cryptography examines how we share and receive information. The enormous amount of data currently collected offers great opportunities to achieve medical breakthroughs, smart infrastructure, economic growth through consumer targeting, and surveillance for national security. This data collection, however, seems to stand in contradiction to patients\u2019 rights, consumers\u2019 privacy, unfair pricing, and the \u201cBasic Right to be Left Alone.\u201d Dr. Goldwasser\u2019s presentation addressed how modern encryption methods, zero-knowledge proofs, and multi-party secure computation make progress on sharing information while simultaneously maintaining privacy. Zero-knowledge proofs are powerful tools in the design of cryptographic protocols. The notion was developed\u00a0in the 1980<\/a>s\u00a0by Dr. Goldwasser, and MIT colleagues Silvio Micali and Charles Rackoff. In 2013, Goldwasser and Micali were awarded the Turing Award<\/a> for their work on cryptography.<\/p>\n

Her talk was timely. National security is a top priority for the Trump administration. But what, exactly, is meant by \u201cnational security\u201d? The opening Wikipedia<\/em><\/a> line asserts that it \u201crefers to the\u00a0security<\/a>\u00a0of a\u00a0nation state<\/a>, including its\u00a0citizens<\/a>,\u00a0economy<\/a>, and institutions, and is regarded as a duty of government.\u201d Later on, we read \u2013 on this same Wikipedia<\/em> page \u2013 that the \u201cconcept of national security remains ambiguous, having evolved from simpler definitions which emphasised freedom from military threat and from political coercion.\u201d Part of it certainly includes ensuring safety from military attacks. It is now construed more broadly and protecting our national security includes a wide range of efforts aimed at everything from protecting citizens from insecurities due to climate change (e.g., food insecurity) to protecting against cyber-attacks.<\/p>\n

The National Security Act of 1947 and its amendments mark the federal government\u2019s firm commitment to protecting its citizens from military threat. The 1947 version of the law created the agency which later became the Department of Defense, and established the National Security Council as well as the Central Intelligence Agency. In 1949, the Council became part of the\u00a0Executive Office of the President and our first National Security Advisor Robert Cutler\u00a0began in that role in 1953. The current advisor is Herbert Raymond \u201cH.R.\u201d McMaster. His view on cybersecurity is that cyber-terrorism is a serious threat<\/a> to the U.S. Professor Goldwasser\u2019s talk focused on cybersecurity, and keeping us safe in in \u201ccyberspace\u201d.<\/p>\n

Less than two weeks after her talk, President Trump unveiled his National Security Strategy<\/a> (NSS) \u2013 a political document drafted with oversight from McMaster. These annual reports to Congress are required by the Goldwater-Nichols Defense Department Reorganization Act of 1986. However, only seven have been produced since 2000<\/a>.<\/p>\n

This one has received much commentary in the press, and I won\u2019t write about that at all. You can google and quickly find opinions \u2013 both positive and negative \u2013 from within the U.S. and from news sources around the world.<\/p>\n

What does it mean for mathematicians and other scientists?<\/p>\n

The Trump Administration\u2019s NSS indicates their understanding that cyberspace is a critical part<\/a> to practically every aspect of national security. It has been noted that the document has entirely dismissed climate change<\/a>. Interestingly, the statement refers a few times to universities, asserting that the U.S. \u201cmust continue to attract the innovative and the inventive, the brilliant and the bold. We will encourage scientists in government, academia, and the private sector to achieve advancements across the full spectrum of discovery, from incremental improvements to game-changing breakthroughs.\u201d This would be done, in part, by improving STEM education and is done in an effort to \u201cPromote American Prosperity.\u201d Those of us in the mathematical sciences might want to take note that data science and encryption are specifically pointed out as areas that will be pursued and promoted. Or not;\u00a0Newsweek<\/em><\/a> explains \u201cwhy it is pure fantasy to believe that the National Security Strategy will drive policy in the Trump administration.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

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On December 6, Shafi Goldwasser — RSA Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at MIT — spoke at the U.S. Capitol on \u201cCryptography: How to Enable Privacy in a Data-Driven World.\u201d\u00a0 Dr. Goldwasser will take up a new post … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n

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