Edward Scheidt

Scheidt was born July 20, 1939, in San Bernardino County. He graduated in 1957 from Cor Jesu High School in New Orleans{{cite web|url=https://www.brothermartin.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/CrimsonShield/10-2010/BMMagazine1010Scheidt.htm|accessdate=2023-07-21|title=Even the Teacher Can't Decipher It|date=October 2010|newspaper=Crimson Shield}} and then joined the Army,{{cite web|url=https://www.cia.gov/news-information/featured-story-archive/2008-featured-story-archive/ed-scheidt.html|publisher=Central Intelligence Agency|date=2008|accessdate=May 23, 2011|title=The People of the CIA: Edward Scheidt|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090114013743/https://www.cia.gov/news-information/featured-story-archive/2008-featured-story-archive/ed-scheidt.html|archive-date=2009-01-14}} where he worked in Signals Intelligence.

In 1963, he was hired as a communications officer for the CIA, in the Office of Communications, which began a 26-year career, after which he retired in December 1989. Scheidt spent 12 years posted overseas, including serving in Vientiane from 1963,{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=PyVbqtp7rfYC&dq=vientiane%20edward%20%20scheidt&pg=RA4-PA63 |title=Department of State Newsletter|year=1963|accessdate=2023-07-18|page=63}} Damascus and Tel Aviv from 1966 to 1968,{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=2NQWAAAAYAAJ&dq=Scheidt%2C%20Edward%20M.%2CNew%20Appt.to%20Da-%20mascus&pg=RA15-PA63|year=1966|title=Department of State Newsletter|accessdate=2023-07-18|page=63}}{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=5gYvAAAAMAAJ&dq=edward%20m%20scheidt%20damascus%20Tel%20aviv&pg=RA11-PA62 |title=Department of State Newsletter|year=1967|accessdate=2023-07-18|page=62}}{{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=BxU4r_VtV7QC&dq=%22scheidt%20edward%20m%22&pg=RA7-PA55|title=Department of State Newsletter|year=1968|accessdate=2023-07-18|page=55}}

Manila from 1971 to 1973,{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=pQhmrRU3LXQC&dq=%22scheidt%20edward%22%20%22manila%22&pg=RA4-PA78|page=78|year=1971|title=Department of State Newsletter|accessdate=2023-07-18}}{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=HBaiHEQgZgkC&dq=%22scheidt%20edward%22%20%22manila%22&pg=RA10-PA63|year=1973|page=63|title=Department of State Newsletter|accessdate=2023-07-18}}

and Athens from 1978 to 1980.{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=UNsWAAAAYAAJ&dq=%22Scheidt%2C%20Edward%22%20%22department%20of%20state%22&pg=RA5-PA45|year=1978|page=45|title=Department of State Newsletter|accessdate=2023-07-18}}{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=T7n0A2w7oKsC&dq=%22Scheidt%2C%20Edward%20m%22&pg=PA29|year=1980|page=29|title=Department of State Newsletter|accessdate=2023-07-18}}

Most often he used one-time pad paper systems of encryption.

Scheidt received a B.A. in business administration from the University of Maryland in 1970 and an M.S. in telecommunications from George Washington University in 1975. In 1974 he was with the Army Communications Service Group and by 1978 he had reached Foreign Service Reserve Level 6.{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=7NdIAQAAIAAJ&dq=%22Scheidt%2C%20Edward%20m%22&pg=PA38|title=Foreign Service Classification List|year=1978|publisher=Department of State|accessdate=2023-07-18|page=38}}

Scheidt is best known for his involvement with Kryptos, a sculpture in the CIA courtyard which contains one of the world's most famous unsolved codes. Kryptos was created by Washington, D.C., sculptor Jim Sanborn, who was commissioned by the CIA in the 1980s to create art around their new Headquarters building in 1988. After Sanborn decided he wanted to incorporate some encrypted messages in his artwork, he was teamed with Scheidt, who was in the process of retiring and was called by then-director William H. Webster "The Wizard of Codes".[https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/national/daily/july99/kryptos19.htm "Cracking the Code of a CIA Sculpture"], John Schwartz, July 19, 1999, Page A01, Washington Post Up until that point, Sanborn had never used encryption or text in his work. Scheidt taught various encryption methods to Sanborn, who chose the exact messages to be encrypted. Of the messages on the sculpture, three have been solved, but the fourth section, 97 or 98 characters at the very bottom, remains uncracked."[http://books.guardian.co.uk/danbrown/story/0,15931,1505474,00.html "Interest grows in solving cryptic CIA puzzle after link toDa Vinci Code"], June 11, 2005, The Guardian, by Julian Borger[https://www.wired.com/news/culture/0,1284,66359,00.html "Inside Info on Kryptos Codes], January 21, 2005, Wired News[https://www.wired.com/news/culture/1,66334-0.html "Solving the Enigma of Kryptos"], January 26, 2005, Wired News, by Kim Zetter[http://www.cnn.com/2005/US/06/17/sanborn/ "Sanborn: 'Kryptos' sculpture was 'an obsession'"], June 21, 2005, CNN[https://www.nytimes.com/2006/04/22/us/22puzzle.html?_r=1&oref=slogin "A Break for Code-Breakers on a C.I.A. Mystery"], April 22, 2006, The New York Times

In 1991, journalist Bill Gertz referred to Scheidt as the "Deep Throat of Codes" while describing his clandestine meetings with Sanborn.{{cite news|first=Bill|last=Gertz|title=Cryptic sculpture spooks CIA employees|work=Washington Times|date=8 April 1991|quote=Mr. Sanborn told the AP the message was written by a retired CIA cryptographer, which would seem to rule out Mr. Clancy. The sculptor and the Deep Throat of codes conducted business only at secret locations, never by telephone or in writing.}} This nickname was later said to have been applied to Scheidt by Webster{{cite web|url=http://austininc.com/SciRealm/KryptosHints.html|title=Kryptos hints|date=2009-02-02|access-date=2023-07-21|quote=Note: The source refers to notes from Elonka Dunin in 2003.|last=Wilson|first=John|archive-date=2009-02-02|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090202161438/http://austininc.com/SciRealm/KryptosHints.html|url-status=bot: unknown}} before being added to Scheidt's bio on the TecSec website by 2015.{{cite web|url=http://www.tecsec.com/about.html|title=TecSec About|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150421141918/http://www.tecsec.com/about.html|access-date=16 August 2021|archive-date=2015-04-21}}

In the early 1990s, Scheidt noted that encryption, which originated for primarily one-to-one communications, now faced new and substantially different key management requirements in large network or virtual network environments. It was into this technologically dynamic environment that Ed co-founded [http://www.tecsec.com TecSec Inc]., a software encryption company in 1990 in Vienna, Virginia. As of March 2023 he was senior security development executive vice president at Tecsec.{{Cite press release|url=https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20230308005234/en/X9-Seeks-Participants-for-New-Research-into-Bank-held-Crypto-Asset-Risks|title=X9 Seeks Participants for New Research into Bank-held Crypto Asset Risks|date=2023-03-08|accessdate=2023-07-18}}

One of their first ventures was to manufacture portable satellite versions of the secure STU-III telephones used by the government. Scheidt manufactured the first model in his home basement workshop, and approximately 500 were in use worldwide by the United States Foreign Service as of 2002. The company also set out to create an encryption design with its key management that could be cited in standards or use components of standards.

In forming TecSec and building the company's large IP library, he anticipated the flexibility and mobility required of 21st Century communication systems with a key management system that is primarily client-based and much less dependent upon a central server. The relative scalability achieved by this approach, together with encryption at the object level, provides enforced role based access and granularity not otherwise available. Ed remains deeply involved in the company's product development and expanding application solutions, just as he is in general management. He holds 36 patents in cryptographic technologies through TecSec from 1993 to 2015.{{cite web|url=https://patents.google.com/?inventor=Edward&assignee=Tecsec&num=100&oq=inventor:(Edward)+assignee:(Tecsec)|accessdate=2023-07-18|title=Google Patents}}

In February 2010 TecSec filed a lawsuit against several large tech vendors claiming infringement of several patents covering encryption technology.{{cite web |url=http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9154319/Encryption_vendor_files_patent_lawsuit_against_tech_giants?source=CTWNLE_nlt_security_2010-02-10

|title=Encryption vendor files patent lawsuit against tech giants|

accessdate=9 February 2010 |publisher=ComputerWorld Inc. |date=9 February 2010}} The case concluded in 2019 with Adobe paying no damages.{{cite web|url=https://www.law.com/nationallawjournal/2019/06/21/latham-whittles-long-running-patent-case-down-to-zero-damages/|title=Latham whittles long running patent case down to zero|date=2019-06-21|accessdate=2023-07-18|author=Scott Graham}}

As of September 2020, Scheidt was vice chair, ANSI X9F for global security standards, Accredited Standards Committee X9, which develops and promotes standards for the US financial services industry.{{cite web|url=https://webstore.ansi.org/preview-pages/ASCX9/preview_ANSI+X9.142-2020.pdf|title=Public Key Cryptography for the Financial Services Industry—The Elliptic Curve Digital Signature Algorithm|accessdate=12 November 2020}} Scheidt is also convenor of ISO TC68/SC2/Working group (WG) 17 for the creation of the digital currency security Technical Specification international standard. WG17 includes representation from various countries and commercial interest. As convenor of WG17, Scheidt represents ISO to ITU for their Fiat digital currency efforts.{{cite web|url=https://www.iso.org/committee/49670.html|accessdate=12 November 2020|title=ISO/TC 68/SC 2 Financial Services, security}}

In honor of the 100th Anniversary of the Knights of Columbus in the Commonwealth of Virginia, Charter Grand Knight Edward M. Scheidt conceived a symbolic representation known as the Virginia Ecumenical Chalice, which was subsequently presented to and blessed by Pope John Paul II in 2001.{{Cite web |url=http://uknight.org/Councils/2021%20Convention%20Mass%20Booklet.pdf |title=The Virginia Knights of Columbus Ecumenical Chalice |publisher=Knights of Columbus |date=2001 |accessdate=2023-07-18 |archive-date=2023-02-04 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230204124102/https://uknight.org/Councils/2021%20Convention%20Mass%20Booklet.pdf |url-status=dead }}

{{reflist}}

• [https://apps.dtic.mil/sti/citations/ADA421985 "Information-Centric Security"], February 6, 2004, Pentagon report, co-written with Wai Tsang and Karen Burkardsmaier

• [http://www.elonka.com/kryptos/faq.html Kryptos FAQ]
• [https://tecsec.com/meet-the-team/ TecSec information page]
• [http://www.govcon.com/Content/news/article.asp?Bucket=Article&DocID=%7B7D477DFB-B426-11D4-8C76-009027DE0829%7D&VNETCOOKIE=NO "Techway"], November 7, 2002, The Washington Post
• [http://www.bouchercon.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/2001-Washington-DC.pdf Bouchercon 2001] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161224011810/http://www.bouchercon.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/2001-Washington-DC.pdf |date=2016-12-24 }}
• [https://peggysmedleyshow.com/080514-hour-2-business-cybersecurity-risks-and-information-1 The Peggy Smedley Show, 5 August 2014]

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Category:Living people

Category:Modern cryptographers

Category:American cryptographers

Category:People of the Central Intelligence Agency

Category:1939 births

Category:Brother Martin High School alumni

Category:George Washington University alumni

Category:People from New Orleans

Category:Mathematicians from California

Category:Mathematicians from Louisiana