Lone Wolfe Innovation

How often do we hear tales of lone-wolf innovators who made extraordinary contributions to our world? We rarely hear of them nowadays, and the reason is easy to understand. Solo inventors were once an American stereotype. “Yankee ingenuity” was a common buzz phrase. Nowadays, however, we seem to assume that significant innovation to the world, an idea, an invention, or a plan, must require years of relentless teamwork, jointly driven by creative minds. Lone wolves of genius may be tacitly possible. But only occasionally are they so situated as to receive public recognition. One such tale is that of “renaissance man” Lieutenant Commander David Winters, naval officer, author, international consultant, commercial jet pilot, and patent attorney. Little known in any of these capacities, he made contributions of historical importance. 

His story is not a tale of ambition. The commander was posted to London and assigned responsibility for telecommunications security throughout Europe. For simplicity, we shall call his position “Code Master.” This was not a choice gig. In those days, such an assignment was considered unspeakably hazardous and promised little professional advancement for a severe seagoing officer. He would be managing the telecommunications code “encryption” keys theater-wide. One solitary clerical error could constitute grounds for court martial in this sensitive job. Facing this, Winters viewed his assignment with not unjustified paranoia.

Winters did a detailed survey of his responsibilities and support structure. They needed to be better balanced. The support structure needed to be revised. The problem was that he was responsible for acquiring, transporting, storing, using, and securing the disposal of thousands of highly classified code “encryption” keys used to protect US naval telecommunications traffic throughout Europe. But the system for accomplishing this was alarmingly overloaded and inadequate.

The shortcoming was almost understandable. When secret codes were conceived centuries ago, they were few and of limited use. One courier might carry a code key in his boot to be delivered, and another messenger might transport a few coded messages via sealed saddle bags. That was manageable. But, insidiously, too slowly to attract attention, the demand for securely secret communications expanded. By the late twentieth century, text, voice, and data code keys and users worldwide numbered in the hundreds of thousands, and encrypted messages, in the millions. Yet the required encryption keys were still manually carried and delivered by specialized “trusted” couriers.

This was insane.

The unwieldy system had, by then, already been exploited to enemy advantage on multiple occasions and was undoubtedly being similarly influenced even as Commander Winters assumed his duties. He did not accept this status quo but determined that this situation had to change quickly. There was no time for bureaucratic delay or obstruction.

Nothing else focuses the mind like an impending disaster. With some research, he conceived a remedy. Taking a cue from Whitfield Diffie, Winters hit upon a means to eliminate the manual distribution of physical code encryption keys. And better, he did it by using already available technology. Then imitating the machinations of Art Fry, he bypassed his paranoid bureaucracy and established demand for his streamlined methods at the level of “boots on the ground.” By the time anyone in Washington noticed anything unusual, his new system had already proved itself essential throughout Europe.

Once activated, detection was inevitable. Each location incorporating his innovation immediately began saving the Navy money when it disconnected from the expensive courier-based key distribution circuit. Millions of dollars in expenditures suddenly stopped, and that got attention.

The Navy seized upon winter’s money-saving method and, shortly after that, adopted it by the Army, Air Force, and Marines. US allies followed suit. His creation was officially named “OTAR,” an acronym for “Over The Air Rekeying.” The massive financial windfall created by OTAR obscured its priceless security benefits. Nobody recognized that security, not reduced cost, was the real achievement. Not having initiated his caper for recognition anyway, Winters called no attention to this failure in perception. He expected the more critical but unnoticed security revolution to be apparent once the dust settled.

In this, he overestimated the perceptiveness of the bureaucracy. In fact, for thirty years, although absolutely all code/encryption key losses or thefts had stopped dead in their tracks, nobody noticed. At that point, in the interest of preserving his security revolution, Winters outlined it in a memo for the archives of the National Security Agency. His message resulted in an invitation to explain his unnoticed security revolution to the International Symposium for Cryptologic History organized by the National Security Agency in 2017.

His presentation was enthusiastically received. Yet, except for those who attended this symposium, only some would learn of his momentous contribution or be aware of its historical impact. The text of his presentation was not published, and the planned CSPAN broadcast was canceled. Big tech had long ago quietly filed patents incorporating his methods. So, neither they nor the government bureaucracies were anxious to be spotlighted for having missed the point of this revolution. This was quite understandable.

In the interim, Commander Winters steadily continued his pattern of injecting disruptive new ideas while in the Navy. He introduced other innovations, such as incorporating secure (scrambled) telephone units into portable commercial satellite terminals, a precious asset to American covert operations. Eventually, he retired from service, was called to the bar, and established a patent law practice specializing in lone-wolf inventors.

Commander Winters is, of course, only one example drawn from many who remain unknown or anonymous. Unsung geniuses continue to labor at all levels to introduce valuable inventions despite bureaucratic opposition or discouragement. Sadly, United States patent law under the “America Invents Act” was recently amended to make their task even more complex and less rewarding. 

The inventors will not go away. But their contributions will be increasingly side-lined and lost without encouragement. Recognizing that they exist and encouraging their progress are essential. We have plenty to gain from re-adopting the expression “Yankee Ingenuity.”