Wikipedia:WikiProject Cryptography/Featured

Featured articles -- proposed / nominated / accepted

As part of our campaign to save the world by telling everyone about crypto:

Some crypto articles have been nominated for WP featured article status. They are listed here, together with (irregular) periodic status notes. Those articles which have been accepted onto the featured list are also listed here together with date of acceptance. Articles which might sometime qualify for nomination are also listed here with comments, eg on work remaining before nomination would be reasonable. Ordering is alfa save under 'candidates' where the ordering is most recent at the top.

proposals

• Anonymous remailer -- article has been stable for a while. Is not too detailed -- except possibly in purposes section, but remailers are a little odd and hard to understand for the Average Reader without some thought as to their raisonne d'etre, so this is probably justified. Too little info on the detailed differences among them, but probably an appropriate level of detail for a WP article, and perhaps more than enough for a featured article.
• digital signature -- this article is brief coverage of something important in law / crypto / public policy etc. It covers the meat of the topic (the crypto authentication part) and adds some coverage of the poor fit between social desires/expectations re signatures and the ability of the crypto engineering to match them. Such issues are now beginning to appear in court (in the US anyway) as a result of the legistative activity in the mid to late 90s, and especially as a result of the US Federal Esign act of 2000. Tricky stuff at this interface between the computer / crypto folk and the legal ones; this article has reasonable and brief coverage of this.
• frequency analysis -- covers a fundamental topic in the history of cryptography with connections to Doyle (Holmes) and Poe (the macabre). Illustrates something of the historical development of cryptography in step with cryptanalysis. Not technical at all, really.
• one time pad -- Central topic esp for crypto theory, article is not so technical that the Average Reader will be put off. Clearly enough written to be accessible, but not so watered down as to neglect crypto reality. Now is sectioned.
• Purple code -- on a very important historical system whose breaking was significant in WWII. Not very technical, not very long. May be controversial as provides no support for conspiracy accounts of Pearl Harbor. Should definitely be renamed before actually nominating to the featured list. It was a cypher, not a code.
• Secret sharing -- very well structured, not very technical, perhaps too little so for some purposes, though likely not in re featured status. See Talk discussion.
• Secure channel -- Short, makes an important point, and the pigeon chow comment will make folks smile. Not too technical. Perhaps too short for a featured article (you know, too stubby?).
• substitution cipher -- a longish article on a central topic in crypto. Not too technical, save for a short para on the Hill cypher, which makes an important point and so should probably be retained. Does not (praise be!) get lost in detailed differences betwixt this and that clever cypher design of yore; makes clear that there's been a revolution in crypto in the last couple of decades. Article on the whole successfully fills an important niche for crypto (though mostly crypto history) and is worthwhile on that basis, perhaps especially for featured status and the wider world. Has recently been overhauled on a copyedit basis and is content satisfactory at the moment.

nominated article candidates / status

• PGP, several support votes; one objection on style/layout grounds -- resolved; one objection on (minor) style grounds, pretty much resolved; another on stylistic grounds -- no picture, pending.

---Apparently out of the running at this time. Moved to archived discussion status ca 19.6.04. Not sure why as the objections were, I thought, pretty much resolved. Does anyone know why it didn't make featured status (ww 14:06, 21 Jun 2004 (UTC))?

• Alan Turing Considerable support, two objections, not clear from the record what was done to address them.

---Apparently out of the running at this time. Moved to archived discussion status. Can come back in a bit after some edits to address issues, it appears. Close though.

• Yeah, I think it needs a more thorough cryptography section, given his "legendary" codebreaker status. — Matt 19:39, 24 Jun 2004 (UTC)

• Grille (cryptography) -- failed to reach featured status, June 06, see Talk page.

Accepted articles

• Cryptography -- the introductary survey article.
• Voynich manuscript -- coverage of mysterious (perhaps cryptographic) topic was admired
• Enigma machine -- added 1.8.04 after much work and removal of material to a new article (cryptanalysis of Enigma) and to existing article, Ultra
• DES -- added 04.08.10, unanimous support, especially after Wapcaplet's tour de rotor illustrations were added.
• ROT13
• Caesar cipher -- added 05.31.03
• OpenBSD -- Became featured in January, OpenBSD is a crypto-enabled open source operating system

Removed articles

• Illegal prime see discussion at (Wikipedia:Featured_article_removal_candidates#Illegal_prime)