Math 1111: Cryptography

The "uncrackable codes" made by exploiting the branch of physics called quantum mechanics no longer require the use of special "dark fibres" and have been sent down kilometres of standard broadband fibre.

Britain's code-breakers acknowledged Friday that an encrypted handwritten message from World War II, found on the leg of a long-dead carrier pigeon in a household chimney in southern England, has thwarted all their efforts to decode it since it was sent to them last month.

The cipher described in this article was so secret that even President Lincoln "was denied access to the codes."

WIRED's @KimZetter on encryption, back doors, and the #ParisAttacks. #fywscrypto https://t.co/nRgnRIUN64 - Derek Bruff (@derekbruff) November 17, 2015

This source gives a variety of examples in which encryption is used for security everyday, like ATM machines and DVD players. It seems like this is a pretty useful list because it goes into sufficient enough depth to describing the different examples, and specifically explains how encryption comes into play - without making it too long or hard to understand.

This is the e-text of a book that discusses online network encryption and application. The chapters cover various encryption methods for the transfer of data online, as well as the application of wireless, email, IP network security

This blog is all about privacy, as the title suggests. The majority of the blog posts use actual examples, such as the Ashley Madison hack, in order to reveal important cybersecurity lessons. One particular blog post explains how Passages, a secure virtual browser, is a lot like hand sanitizer for the web. I thought that this blog was particularly interesting because it had a lot of relevant, unique examples about privacy and cryptography in the modern world.

This page is from the University of Texas, and it describes different aspects of cryptography in everyday life. For instance, it explains how cryptography plays a large role in authentication, digital money, and time stamping. I liked this webpage because it had a lot of different examples with clear explanations.

Here's a case study for someone's practical crypto paper...

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.

Here's an example of surveillance vs. privacy that doesn't involve security. Instead, the goal is student learning.

The FCC decided Friday that it can't force Internet companies like Google, Facebook and ad providers from tracking users online.

"Alice is the attacker, not me." - Eve

This article explains a way that credit card information is stored safely without encryption. Tokenization is a completely different way of securing credit card information than encryption because it completely removes the credit card information and replaces it with a "token" that cannot be retraced to retrieve the credit card information. Encryption has the credit card information hidden somewhere, but tokenization erases it completely which makes it very secure.

This article gives a method for generating secure yet easy to remember passwords for online accounts, using encryption and modular arithmetic (!). It is an interesting use of encryption in everyday life for something we all have, password-protected internet accounts. If you click through to the computer science category, you can find other posts on cryptography, encryption, and privacy.

This website provides ample information on not only the ins and outs of public information but it also gives helpful suggestions on how to keep things private and why. One interesting suggestion discussed the risks of posting your birthday as identity thieves can predict your Social Security number based off of your place of birth and birthdate.

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."

"War is declared. Get prepared"