Group items tagged

A look at some older cryptography used by the military and a look at what they are transitioning to

JN-25: code used during and slightly before world war II

The official website of the Code Talkers. It gives a description of the code used and stories of the remaining Navajos.

The SIGSALY voice encryption system used during WWII by the Allies.

An in-depth description of Julius Caesar's shift cipher and how it works. Also shows how to use frequency analysis and chi-square values to quickly break the cipher.

Very interesting article that begins with the story of Mary, Queen of Scots, and continues to speak about different techniques of encryption that are harder and harder to break. It also deals with the fact that Mary's messages were being intercepted and the article speaks about secure encryption using photons where you would know if your message was intercepted.

Instead of hiring "upper-class twits from Oxford and Cambridge," A government communications agency tried a new angle on recruiting hackers. They decided to combat hackers with other experienced hackers by posting an online puzzle and offering a job interview to those who solved it.

This resource provides access to articles, news, and blog posts regarding military embedded systems, often using cryptography. One article referenced the cryptography used to secure "Data at Rest" and the length at which this information should be held secure. Is it ethical to keep this information from the public when safety is no longer a concern? At what point should these well-kept secrets become accessible?

Hidden messages? Check. Cheating? Check. Seems on-topic for this course!

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.

What really stood out to me about this article was that they said the NSA actually pays more attention to those people who use encryption. So, in order to protect ourselves and also avoid prying NSA eyes, we should encourage people to stand in solidarity with encryption. I thought this was really interesting because I always thought that encryption would undoubtedly make everything more secure, but here they're saying that it actually attracts attention (which isn't necessarily a good thing).

When I was a kid, I read an issue of Superman in which he faces Batman's villain, the Joker. At one point, the Joker tells Superman that he's kidnapped all of Superman's best friends (Lois Lane, Jimmy Olsen, and so on) and locked them inside lead-lined caskets, hidden throughout Metropolis. Since the caskets are air-tight, they only have an hour to live, and Superman can't find them because his x-ray vision can't see through lead! That's what the Joker said. Actually, since Superman can't see through lead, those caskets *stood out* when he scanned the city with his x-ray vision, and he rescued all his friends in short order. Same basic idea.

You can find anything on the Internet: http://goodcomics.comicbookresources.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/09/superjoker6.jpg.

I'm just going to resubmit the bookmark directly to this page so I'll be sure it ends up publicly in the group. This wasn't mentioned in Singh chapter 2, but it was created around the time period discussed in the chapter. (Plus, it's one of my favorite articles I've read in Wired so I really wanted to use it as a bookmark.) The article discusses the strategies used to break this cipher, some of which, such as frequency analysis, we have talked about in class. It's also just fascinating to read about the Oculists and their history.

What is Visual Cryptography Visual Cryptography is a special encryption technique to hide information in images in such a way that it can be decrypted by the human vision if the correct key image is used. The technique was proposed by Naor and Shamir in 1994. Visual Cryptography uses two transparent images.

Interesting article on how public-key encryption is used to keep information safe during financial transactions online. The article discusses weakness in basic public-key encryption schemes and how some of these schemes have been improved.

This article may be biased but it is still interesting. It implies that the government is using cell phones to track citizens in the same way bus passes were used in Little Brother.

At a New York state elementary school, teachers can use a behavior-monitoring app to compile information on which children have positive attitudes and which act out. In Georgia, some high school cafeterias are using a biometric identification system to let students pay for lunch by scanning the palms of their hands at the checkout line.

This website provides a few instructions on how to increase your safety downloading apps from the app store. It also provides links to other websites which show the safety score of an app. Since most people (including myself) don't think twice about downloading any app that looks interesting, this is useful information to have.

Here's some background on the Obama administration's decision to admit Syrian refugees to the US, and Republican governors who want to refuse entry. Alabama governor Robert Bentley: "I will not place Alabamians at even the slightest, possible risk of an attack on our people."

I got the General Petraeus story a bit wrong. He and his friend weren't using Google docs to communicate, they used a shared Gmail account. They would sometimes draft, but not send emails, as an extra measure of security, but, as this article points out, that doesn't work.