Conference Theme

Every year, RSA® Conference is built around a different theme which highlights a significant example of information security from history. In 2007, we celebrate the influence of 15th century Renaissance man Leon Battista Alberti, the creator of the polyalphabetic cipher.

The Renaissance was a period of great scientific, cultural and artistic advancement and transformation – developments which still echo in today's modern times. Leon Battista Alberti was an illustrious mind of this period whose scientific and cultural influence surpassed his brief life span. A painter, poet, philosopher, musician, architect and "Father of Western Cryptology", Alberti invented the first published polyalphabetic cipher in 1466. His cipher disk contained two alphabets, one on a fixed outer ring, and the other on a rotating disk and is the cipher design to which most of today’s systems of cryptography belong: polyalphabetic substitution. Alberti's polyalphabetic cipher was, at least in principle, the most significant advance in cryptography since before Julius Caesar's time and marked a great stride forward in cryptology.