2011 Reports

Frank Miller: Inventor of the One-Time Pad

Bellovin, Steven Michael

The invention of the one-time pad is generally credited to Gilbert S. Vernam and Joseph O. Mauborgne. We show that it was invented about 35 years earlier by a Sacramento banker named Frank Miller. We provide a tentative identification of which Frank Miller it was, and speculate on whether or not Mauborgne might have known of Miller's work, especially via his colleague Parker Hitt.