International Association
for Cryptologic Research

The One-Time Pad is the first perfectly secure cipher. Its invention is usually credited to Gilbert S. Vernam and Joseph O. Mauborgne. Prof. Steven M. Bellovin from the Department of Computer Science at Columbia University shows that it was known approx. 35 years earlier to a Sacramento banker named Frank Miller. He also published his scheme in the book Telegraphic Code to Insure Privacy and Secrecy in the Transmission of Telegrams. Steven Bellovin rediscovered this book in the Library of Congress. He has published his findings in Steven M. Bellovin: 'Frank Miller: Inventor of the One-Time Pad', Cryptologia, Volume 35, Issue 3, pages 203-222, July 2011.

• Research Manuscript: https://mice.cs.columbia.edu/getTechreport.php?techreportID=1460
• Cryptologia article: http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/01611194.2011.583711
• Article in the New York Times: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/26/science/26code.html