Amusing anecdote, I was quite taken with the 'Java Ring' (which was a class ring type ring with a Dallas iButton on it) because it could be a 'secret decoder ring' with real crypto, except that all the crypto bits were disabled because they did not have permission from the NSA to turn them on.
So I wrote an Enigma Machine simulator for it [1] which used BASE64 to encrypt (or decrypt) messages. And in the process of doing research for that article I discovered the patent for the 'rotor' used in enigma [2] which was filed in Oct 10th, 1944 but didn't issue until Oct 12th, 1976! Talk about your submarine patent! But the other interesting thing about 1976 is that the DES encryption standard was announced in November of that year.
I don't doubt for a minute that Nash's work was influential on the thinking at least of the development of that standard.
So I wrote an Enigma Machine simulator for it [1] which used BASE64 to encrypt (or decrypt) messages. And in the process of doing research for that article I discovered the patent for the 'rotor' used in enigma [2] which was filed in Oct 10th, 1944 but didn't issue until Oct 12th, 1976! Talk about your submarine patent! But the other interesting thing about 1976 is that the DES encryption standard was announced in November of that year.
I don't doubt for a minute that Nash's work was influential on the thinking at least of the development of that standard.
[1] http://www.javaworld.com/javaworld/jw-08-1998/jw-08-indepth....
[2] http://www.google.com/patents/US3984922