Group items tagged

Online collaboration over the claimed proof "P versus NP" demonstrates the potential of the internet in the field of mathematical and intellectual research alike. The proof "P versus NP," if verified, would make obsolete modern cryptography, which works under the assumption that P does not equal NP.

Discusses some interesting undercover cryptography work during the Cold War era

A description of the U.S. military's first cryptographic system.

Researchers have applied the microdot principle described by Singh on page 6 to hide messages in DNA sequences.

A useful document detailing the different substitution ciphers (including the Caesar Shift) and the application of Modular Arithmetic in modern day Cryptography.

"The problem of securing biological research data is a difficult and complicated one. Our ability to secure data on computers is not robust enough to ensure the security of existing data sets. Lessons from cryptography illustrate that neither secrecy measures, such as deleting technical details, nor national solutions, such as export controls, will work. "

This outlines the gronsfeld cipher, which is a modification of the vigenere cipher. I like and find this cipher interesting because of it using numbers instead of letters, and I like cryptography which uses numbers.

Interesting. Gronsfeld ciphers then form a subset of Vigenere ciphers. That is, there's a one-to-one correspondence between Gronsfeld ciphers and Vigenere ciphers where keywords are formed from the letters A through J.

This blog has information about military cryptography and privacy in general, including this post about the Zimmermann Telegram. Is it ethical to lie to an ally if it is in their best interest? What are the ethics behind spying on one's allies? Do ethics hinder one's ability to win a war, and if so, should ethics be disregarded in times of war? Another interesting post examines how Snowden should be viewed as a patriot, not a traitor. This made me question where one's loyalty should remain- to the government or to the people?

Here's a recent piece by security expert Bruce Schneier on quantum computing, which is different than quantum cryptography. (I conflated the two during class today.) Quantum computing is very fast computing that could be used to quickly break modern encryption schemes. Quantum cryptography involves sending messages that can't be read, since "looking" at them changes the message. Schneier offers some conjectures about where the NSA is with regard to both technologies.

"Matt Blaze directs the Distributed Systems Lab at the University of Pennsylvania." This site links to his blog and research papers regarding topics of cryptography.

A blog, by multiple authors, about new results in elliptic curve cryptography.

This blog contains vast amounts of information dealing with military cryptography, both in the past and the present. One of the recent articles discussed the morality of utilizing military level cryptography to ensure complete surveillance of civilians, and whether or not it should be allowed.

A security blog created by a multinational software company.

Embeddable cryptographic processors are enabling a host of new defense communications applications, such as smartphones and tablet computers for tactical use on the front lines, but should soldiers be using the same object for both secure and insecure communications? Or does this create a conflict of interests?

This is an article about the advancement of technology and how it has affected cryptography and secret-keeping during wartime.

Securing data is how we currently operate, securing software could be the future of internet security.

Here's a podcast interview with Bill Binney and Ladar Levison, both featured in Citizenfour. Binney was the former NSA crypto expert we saw testifying in the film a couple of times, and Levison was the guy who ran the secure email service Lavabit that he felt compelled to shut down.