RC4 is little bit of computer code that you probably use every day without knowing. It quite possibly made the web into a viable business platform by providing a means for secure monetary transactions online. The original code was created by RSA Systems and has never been released. But one guy figured out some code that works exactly the same, and in 1994, posted the code you see above to a mailing list. The rest is history.
Recently I’ve been fascinated at how important computer code has become to our lives, yet is so unknown by most people. So lately I’ve asked techie friends what they would nominate as the most “important” code. RC4 was the suggestion of Luke Howard.
(Sorry for the low quality and distortion. I couldn’t find a scanner so just used a digital camera and photoshop.)
Previously in lettering: