The pair's encryption method is in use all over the web and relies on asymmetrical encryption, using a public key to encrypt data while a private key is used for decryption. It isn't infallible, however, and you can probably guess pretty easily which government organization was able to crack it. The Turing Award's governing body, the Association for Computing Machinery, says that (PDF) the obfuscation method is used daily to protect "trillions of dollars" in financial transactions, among other applications.

Should you want to attend the ceremony honoring the duo, make sure you're in San Francisco on June 11th.