Peter Schweitzer began his cryptographic career at the Air Force Cambridge Research Center, working under Horst Feistel in the group that developed the foundations of modern symmetric encryption. He was responsible for both the startling demolition of a system on the verge of N.S.A. approval for Identification Friend or Foe and the invention of key scheduling techniques now used in both government and commercial cryptography. Schweitzer and Feistel did the first work on cryptographically-based authentication, which has become an essential pillar of communication-security architecture.

He was still working as a cryptographer up to his death. As Chief Cryptanalyst for Revere Security, he worked on cryptosystems for power-starved applications such as radio-frequency identification. Schweitzer served simultaneously as Revere Security’s Chief Cryptographer and as a member of Information Security Systems Inc. (ISSI), an invitation-only consulting group founded by NSA’s legendary Jim Frazer. He specialized in devising attacks on ciphers that are impervious to mainstream methods.

Peter also worked as an independent information security consultant. In that role, his clients ranged from the Federal Reserve Bank through Lotus, RSA and McKinsey & Co. to a large number of start-up companies needing in-depth assessments of their novel cipher designs before proceeding. Prior to his consulting, he was recruited by Whitfield Diffie to join a small group that (under the aegis of Martin Hellman) conducted the first independent examination of the then-new DES cipher.

 

 

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