Math 1111: Cryptography

Since Israel's bombardment of Gaza, 44 million hacking attempts have been made on Israeli government websites. This article discusses the details of the hacking attempts, and the extent of their success or failure.

Perfect timing for our discussion on Tuesday after break.

An unexpected place for passwords to appear...

Oops.

"Since the dawn of the information age, we've bought into the idea that a password, so long as it's elaborate enough, is an adequate means of protecting all this precious data. But in 2012 that's a fallacy, a fantasy, an outdated sales pitch. And anyone who still mouths it is a sucker-or someone who takes you for one."

"The remains of a World War Two carrier pigeon which was lost in action 70 years ago while delivering a top secret message over enemy lines has been found in a chimney in Bletchingley, Surrey. The skeleton of the bird has a small red cylinder attached to its foot which contains a mysterious cigarette paper sized coded message. The message is deemed so sensitive, that Codebreakers at GCHQ in Cheltenham are now frantically trying to decipher it."

A basic overview of the Siemens T-43 cipher machine used by the Germans, the first mixer machine of its kind.

Continuation of a story I posted a while ago. Britain's top code-breakers say they are stumped by a secret code found on the leg of a dead pigeon. .

This article describes efforts to create an "electronic wallet" to make sharing confidential information more secure and efficient.

Discusses some interesting undercover cryptography work during the Cold War era

An overview of Al-Qaeda's use of encryption technology in their terrorist activities. Relevant to the debate about distributing powerful cryptography to everyone, including those with bad intentions.

Discusses how the security side wins, however unfairly because many reasons are often flawed. 

South Carolina gets hacked due to "outdated" technology