[Ar-Curunir]

ENIGMA is easy compared to modern crypto; it did not have a sound mathematical analysis. Hell there was no such thing as proper cryptanalysis back then.

Academia is much more advanced now; all the tools we have for reasoning about our cryptography were developed in academia, with no evidence that the NSA has shown any interest in that kind of stuff. (In fact the NSA has expressed disdain for academic cryptography).

[sah2ed]

"There are hundreds of mathematicians in the NSA, far more than in academic settings, so readership for a typical paper is wider than in the world at large ..." [1]

[1] http://www.nature.com/naturejobs/science/articles/10.1038/35...

[Ar-Curunir]

That is 15 years old; cryptography as a field has seen tremendous growth in that time frame.

[ooqr]

Don't they hire loads of mathematicians? What else would that be for?

[gech]

How much do they pay