read the Quicksilver Manifesto

Signatories of the Quicksilver Manifesto
  • Harry Zwerdling, Cryptographer: Thank you for having the courage to point out the self-preserving delusions of the cryptologic priesthood. The genie is out of the bottle. I agree completely.

  • Robert Johnson, U.S. Government: My belief it that no market will ever develop which supports the volume production of commodity cryptographic accelerators.

  • Drew Dean, SRI International: Beyond the challenge of getting people to use cryptography is getting them to use it properly.


  • Michael Malkin, Stanford University: I hope that people read the Quicksilver manifesto and take it seriously.

  • Peter G. Neumann, Computer Science Lab, SRI International: Cryptography is an essential part of security, but
    by itself is not enough. Don't forget the overall
    system/network architecture that must properly
    encapsulate the cryptography, or else the crypto
    can be broken! PGN

  • Kathy Kriese, RSA Security Inc: Keep sensitive information private to reduce your threat of legal exposure.

  • Ram Swaminathan, HP Research Labs, Palo Alto, CA: I fully support this view and would like to join the effort to educate "the mass" out there that crypto is affordable, understanable and inevitable.


  • Stephen Kent, BBN Technologies: I agree with the principles articulated in the manifesto, although one must be careful to not rely exclusively on cryptography in designing secure systems.

  • Martin E. Hellman, Department of Electrical Engineering, Stanford University: When the IEEE Spectrum magazine did its annual review of technology about ten years ago, they asked me what was the biggest unsolved problem in cryptography. I unhesitatingly answered "Lack of user awareness." The nature of this problem has changed slightly in recent years, and the Quicksilver Manifesto captures its new incarnation ("too slow, too burdensome") nicely. An important effort and one I am happy to sign on to.

  • Paul A. Lambert: Cryptography should be an intrinsic part of any computer or communication system. The Quicksilver manifesto clearly challenges some of the misconceptions that have limited the adoption of strong cryptographic technologies.

    Not mentioned in the manifesto are the misconceptions related to export control. The ongoing fear of government control of cryptography has limited the adoption.

  • Morris Packer, Acorn Publishing: It's now or never!

  • Rodrigo Monteiro Lameira, SIEMENS, SA: I fully agree with your manifesto and hope cryptography will soon be widely available to every person and electronic system.

  • Karl D'Adamo, Applied Materials:

  • E. Berges:

  • tom murphy, ICE Inc:

  • Prof. William Frangos, James Madison University:

  • Charles Alwakeel:

  • Leland Wallace, Apple Computer Inc.: Transparent crypto doesn't have to be weak crypto. We need to raise the bar.

  • Jim Andrianakis, Netizen: I agree wholeheartedly and will gladly lend my voice to the cause. However I cannot help but feel that we are all howling at the moon. Society, in general, seems to adopt the attitude of "If it ain't broke why fix it?!". I fear that only a wide-scale financial catastrophy (i.e., some financial institution's client accounts become compromised) will get people's attention focused on the need for better security systems. The only time we seem to learn anything is when it costs us dearly; unfortunately at that point it is almost always too late.

  • Yiqun Lisa Yin, NTT Multimedia Communications Laboratories:

  • Leonard Steven Zimmerman, First Data Resources:

  • Marilyn Vandt, Netizen: I am elated that PARC has chosen to delve into crytology. Quicksilver has been desperately needed for a long time. Way to go, PARC!

  • Alice Silverberg, Stanford and Ohio State Universities: Glad to be a part of it! And glad that computer scientists, engineers, mathematicians, and many others are learning (and, more and more, appreciating) the importance of mathematics in cryptography.

  • Hermann Calabria, PARC:

  • José F. Pascual, UBQT, Inc.: In the course of history there have been no better public security standards than what we a have available today. Wouldn't it be great to use them.

  • Peter Girgis, Fuji Xerox Australia Pty Ltd: Building systems which are secure, yet friendly, is a desire every user hopes they experience, but alas, is not. Cryptography which lends itself to the secure, positive experience is a must if we, the Industry, is to hold its head high and deliver what we promise to our customers - innovate and disseminate - take the enigma out of security.

  • David B. Kennerly: Cryptography is crucial both to our future freedom and to our future safety. The sooner these technologies become pervasive, the better.

  • Matthew S. Hamrick, Meson Group (http://www.mesongroup.com/): Strong Crypto is becoming a commodity product. With the expiration of the RSA patent in 2000 and the adoption of AES as a national standard, the software development community is set to add high quality privacy and authentication to online applications. The Meson Group salutes the authors of the Quicksilver Manifesto and encourages software developers to investigate how inexpensive it is to provide real cryptographic protection for consumer applications.

  • robert renling, beunited:

  • Gilberto Gaspar da Silva, Xerox do Brazil Ltda: The research in configurable encryption algorithms Adaptability of the performance operative on the encryption according longitude code variable, encryption configurable by user, group of users, server, application, service, or incoming/outgoing traffic, selectivity in the implementation of encryption mechanisms, non-intrusive encryption, no effort required for the installation in servers, etc.
    Is de biggest challenge in this area?
    Gilberto Gaspar da Silva
    gilberto.gaspar@uol.com.br
    gilberto.silva@bra.xerox.com
    mobile +55-11-9637-7737
    fone +55-11-5632-4617



  • John Clark Abdon, ReactiveX: ReactiveX appreciates PARC's leadership in this arena.

  • Nathan Dowell, Student: Electronic sercurity should be the highest priority for anyone in IT.

  • Clinton Dow, CoDA: We need to keep our information our own. Don't give up on this ideal, simply because companies have refused to.

  • carn green, wellington: can you send me an e mail thanks

  • Harshwardhan Mittal, Motorola India: To provide any meaningful communication technology, guarding privacy is a must.
    When you want to talk about money, there can not be any second thought to security.

  • Sanjay Ramaswamy, NDSU: I completely agree and support the manifesto.

  • Craig L. Damon, Giritech ApS: It's about time...

  • Keith Aldrich, Montana State University: Privacy cannot be truly appreciated until after it has been taken for granted.

    Computers are now a common household item. We use them to pay our bills, write to our friends, and do business from our laptops. The rise in computer usage has inevitably been accompanied by greater incentives to take advantage of unknowing users. Cryptology is more important now than it has ever been.

    Thank you for the work you are doing.


  • Megan Noel, netizen: This is by all means a most important reasearch project that needs implementation as quickly as possible. I myself have had numerous security breaches into my home computer & on-line shopping. I have had to change debit cards 3 times just this year alone! Way to go...I support this entirely.


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