Information On Cryptography And Effects On Society? 119
Plasmoid asks: "I am doing a school project on cryptography and its effects on society. I am looking for information on my topic. Any sort of information would be great(i.e. books, Web site, people, magazines, etc.). If you or someone you know can speak to me about my topic please e-mail me. I plan to cover NSA, Echelon, other misc. paranoia, current world treaties/laws and important historic events. Any help would be greatly appreciated." Now this sounds like a school project I wish I could work on. I wonder if Plasmoid would mind sharing the results when he's finished.
Don't cheat, do your own research. (Score:1)
Yeagh right, give me -1.
Counterpane newsletter (Score:1)
Paper I wrote on the topic (Score:1)
Re:Another Story on Cryptography ?!? (Score:1)
No one needs NSA-proof crypto. 3DES is enough. (Score:1)
Some references (Score:1)
RISKS archive (Score:1)
__
Subject of my capping course (Score:1)
If you're looking for a book about crypto and society, i would suggest a book by Whitfield Diffie himself called Privacy on the Line [amazon.com], by MIT press. Its a good read, lots of background info about crypto, why they think its necessary,and how its affecting society.
Hope this helps.
Re:Do your own homework! (Score:1)
--
The purpose? (Score:1)
You said:
""I am doing a school project on
cryptography and its effects on
society. I am looking for
information on my topic."
While Cryptography is a good topic for a school project, if it is possible, I like to know the _PURPOSE_ of that said project.
Sometimes, we need to know the purpose behind the research project to feed you correct information.
In your initial piece, you used the word "paranoia", and I want to know for what reason you use _that_ word? Is it just for fun, or do you think that the people who are supporting cryptography are paranoids?
Re:good sources for info (Score:1)
ken, i hope all is well, i haven't seen you around the seen much since packetstorm's uh... transition last year.
Don't forget "The Transparent Society" (Score:1)
Re:Bibliography (Score:1)
Re:Do your own homework! (Score:1)
He IS doing his own research, he's asking here for insights, thats part of his research.
Re:Sources (Score:1)
For a good story on the importance of cryptograpgy, look into the history behind the Zimmermann telegram.
-henrik
article on Stephenson's comments at CFP 2000 (Score:1)
Anyone have a transcript of the whole thing?
Take a look at David Brin's Transparent Society (Score:1)
Phil Zimmermann (Score:1)
Phil Zimmermann is the bloke who wrote PGP way way back. The preface to the book "PGP Source Code and Internals" [pgp.com] is well worth a read. It gives his background and the curious circumstances surrounding the development of PGP.
While there's not enough to base a whole project on by any stretch of the imagination, it will give some useful background and insights from somebody who is (IMHO) very clearly anti-governmental control.
Nick.
another idea (Score:1)
some of the most creative flamers lurk on that list - funny as hell if you're a connoisseur of fine Net flameage, like me.
Wow! (Score:1)
As I see it, your problem will not be getting enough information but, how to trim it down.
Re:Do your own homework! (Score:1)
Of course slashdot is just as valid a source... that is, if you need to know anything about Grits in your Pants or Natalie Portman, or in case you were wondering whether or not you should be using cracker or hacker. *grin*
----
Dave
Purity Of Essence
Re:Be Careful (Score:1)
Re:Don't cheat, do your own research. (Score:1)
> maybe you even know where exactly) and the person is able to answer you without getting annoyed,
>and quite possibly bringing on the table the non-obvious ramifications and
> implications to the question, is it cheating? No way, I say.
Isn't that called "open source" ?
Re:Do your own homework! (Score:1)
Re:Agreed!!! (Score:1)
Ah, but how did you know which two books to pick up? Or why did you bother when you could have picked up some other book from your local library?
Agreed!!! (Score:1)
In my days we used to do our own homework.
Hell, for my school project I had to go to 3 libraries in the poring rain just to get two outdated books.
Seriously, the teacher assigned the student to do the work, not to go post on slashdot.
Those books were really out of date (Score:1)
The End of Money (Score:1)
http://www.aci.net/kalliste/money1.htm
http://www.aci.net/kalliste/money2.htm
Re:Doctoral Candidate? (Score:1)
Re:Don't cheat, do your own research. (Score:1)
On the other hand, not puting any effort into searching for information is doing oneself a disservice.
Then again, if someone is determined to put no effort into something, it doesn't matter who helps or doesn't help.
Also, what's to say that this discussion won't be of interest to other people?
Re:Show examples. (Score:1)
Sounds like what I did last week..... (Score:1)
If you're trying to argue a side, the ACLU's homepage [aclu.org] has a lot of articles in their favor. We got in (and won, I might add) some fun arguments with the FBI group, who were trying to advocate the illegalization of crypto software that doesn't contain backdoors for the government.
My main advice on how to make it interesting and persuasive is to counter all common opposing arguments using logic, without sounding extreme, paranoid, or arrogant. And it's not that hard.
free online book (Score:1)
It's had a good effect and a bad effect: (Score:1)
Bad: You can keep things secret.
Grades, Social Life, Sleep....Pick Two.
Hrmmm... (Score:1)
For instance, are you going to trace the history of crypto, which if memory serves allegedly traces back at least to the Roman Empire, and which had a MAJOR role in, say, WWII?
True Enough :) (Score:1)
At this point I should point out that I hate research, and like programming. If one guy manages to write something useful, and was a decent programmer, I should just take his stuff and use it without actually having to do any thinking. Not so with research.
And yet I seem to end up either rewriting modules I find, or rolling my own. I'm just full of contradictions today...
Great web site (Score:1)
http://library.advanced.org/28005/
Re:No one needs NSA-proof crypto. 3DES is enough. (Score:1)
Re:The Code Book (Score:1)
Re:Ask Slashdot (to do your homework) (Score:1)
Approach me with /some/ evidence that you've begun researching the problem on your own. Say 'I've tried X Y and Z, but don't feel as if I've quite covered all of the bases yet'. Make me want to help you.
google it (Score:1)
Cheating? You must be crazy... (Score:1)
Is it cheating to enter the keyword 'crypto' into a search engine? No.
Is it cheating to enter the keyword 'crypto' into a library search database? No
Is it cheating to ask qualified individuals what they think a good book on 'crypto' is? No
Is it cheating to ask qualified people to write an essay for him to use in his paper? Yeah.
I do not think that there is anything wrong with a student asking a few questions to a completely qualified discussion forum. You obviously do not know the true purpose of education. I thought it was to learn...
And if this student uses a book that someone suggests here, then that student has done fine research in my book!
I am sure I am not the only one... (Score:1)
You make a decent point, but it is wrong nonetheless. Yes, I know that in your day you had to walk uphill in the snow barefoot (because they did not have nice Nike shoes back then) all to get to the library (which was housed in a small, damp, cold, cave) to read carvings on the wall with a torch. We have the internet for a reason, and that (main reason) is for education. If this guy took your advise, he would be limited to a library, and a million 'garbage' hits from any given search engine. He is asking the
If you code, do you close your code and tell people that if they want to do a certain task, that they should re-invent the wheel? I understand that learning how to do applied research (digging through results from a search engine) is actually a good learning experience, but asking the
Now if only the media would ask us questions to better understand technology...
Re:crypto (Score:1)
Re:Don't be such a bastard, jclip. (Score:1)
At least when I was in school (way back in the '80s! *gasp*), the librarians would point you to the "search engines" (card catalogues, Books in Print, periodical indexes, etc.) and show you how to use them. They wouldn't do the searching for you, nor would you expect them to share an extant knowledge on the area you were researching. Librarians are there to teach you to fish, not to do the fishing for you.
As for teaching myself to drive...sure I did, to some extent. From my experience, I knew a lot about how to drive before I actually drove, plus I read a number of books on the subject. It's not like I expected the people who helped me to tell me how to drive--instead, I needed advice and guidance on the finer points. Also, I only asked for advice from people whose driving I had seen and respected, rather than anonymous strangers on /.
This project could be a great learning experience for this student. He chose an interesting topic that is well-covered on the Web. He could probably ask specific questions of experts in the field and get a few answers to spice things up with "personal communication" citations. But he'd learn a lot more if he had to find his sources by himself.
Re:Do your own homework! (Score:1)
Yeah, that advice was really hard to find.
Learning to do research is learning to use search tools. Asking others for sources is a last resort. If someone else does the searching, the student misses out on the experience.
If my intellectual high horse is unacceptably high, it'll just be more painful when I fall off.
Do your own homework! (Score:1)
The material is out there, and I could find it for you easily. But you are supposed to be learning to do your own research, and having me do the work for you teaches you nothing and wastes my time.
best of luck,
James
It's harsh, but this is a point I feel strongly about.
Similarly, I would recommend that other posters resist the urge to "help" and refrain from responding to the question.
Re:Advice for Nerds, Research that Matters (Score:1)
...and you're forgetting that it's called research for a reason. The point of reading through what others think of as crap is that some of it might not be crap to you.
Re:Sources (Score:1)
Actually, The Codebreakers was recently revised (1996) and now includes much more up-to-date info. I'm in the middle of it now, and if you haven't read the update, you really should.
Historical Book... (Score:1)
Re:Reference Material (Score:1)
--
Re:don't forget .. (issues) (Score:1)
PS : You might want to tighten the reins on your flame button. The only true 'free' 'freedom' is the survival of the fittest and I like to think we can move just a bit beyond that. I prefer the 'zen' definition of 'freedom', myself.
Re:don't forget .. (issues) (Score:1)
A point I'd like to raise is that strong crypto has many applications and most of them aren't political, just good policy. How many of you would use telnet to log into a remote machine over the internet? I know I never do that. I use ssh (secure shell). How many of you store passwords in plain text? (Those of you not running Windows, that is..) Cryptography also gives us such wonderful things as digital fingerprints/signatures which you can use to verify an identity over untrusted networks. How many of you would run virtual LAN connections unencrypted? The list goes on..
I think that the bottom line is *why* and *with what intent* do you use cryptography?
Anyway, I remember an article by Nicholas Negroponte where he stated that he couldn't understand the Clipper Chip ruckus. Whatever the government does to the communication lines, you can still run your own encrypted data *over* it. And even if it's outlawed, crypto is just a bundle of mathematical algorithms. All you need is a brain and the willingness to do some work on it. Physical goods are much easier to control and look at the state of firearms/drugs/etc control.
Enough rambling..
Re:Do your own homework! (Score:1)
Re:Read Neal Stephenson's Cryptonomicon (Score:1)
Strong crypto is not all that hard in theory. Commericalization may be hard, but writing a program with a 10000 byte key is not all that hard for a well read C developer with a BS in math.
So what I want to know is, why does the government think they can just pass a law requireng key escrow any all thier worries will go away?
I remember a quote with respect to guns "If you outlaws guns only outlaws will have guns." I think this could be re-writen "If you outlaw crypto, only outlaws will have crypto."
Re:Ask Slashdot (to do your homework) (Score:1)
Actually, I entirely disagree. A very important (and productive) research strategy is to identify people who have expert knowledge and then approach them with succinct, polite, precise questions. This is precisely what Plasmoid has done.
You can learn more in 15 minutes by asking the right person the right questions than you can learn in a month buried in a library. Indeed, I would go further than that. I study mathematics, where the academic literature is often basically impenetrable (journal articles often exist more as an official record of "I got there first!" rather than as a useful source of insight or clarification). If I insisted on "doing my own homework" rather than simply asking the right person the right question, I would probably never discover certain important (but esoteric) mathematical tools relevant to the problems I'm studying.
The internet affords a new forum for soliciting information from experts. The experts can choose whether they will deign to respond, and can chose to remain anonymous (This is a big improvement over a university setting, where anyone can just corner you in your office and waste your time asking you foolish questions). Plasmoid's post wasted about 1 kb of bandwidth and about 10 seconds of your time --probably much less than the banner ad appearing at the top of this page. Please treat the legitimate academic inquiry of others with more respect.
Research Paper (Score:1)
Re:Do your own homework! (Score:2)
Skipping what part? There's a lot of stuff on the web, most of it crap. He's asking an authoritative source (the folk on slashdot) for a short list of useful material. Asking an authority on a subject for direction is a valid research technique. Why force him to wade through dozens of Cryptography for insanely stupid people books before he finds Applied Cryptography?
Many people here seem upset that this student has the internet at his disposal for doing his research, while they had to do without in their day. Get over it. Effectively using the net -- including asking known reliable people on the net for pointers -- is an essential modern research technique.
Re:from the we're-ok-you're-not-ok dept. (Score:2)
RTFM.
__
(oO)
Re:from the we're-ok-you're-not-ok dept. (Score:2)
__
(oO)
Re:Do your own homework! (Score:2)
My advice is to read Applied Cryptography ISBN: 0471117099.
There, that wasn't so bad now was it?
Money (Score:2)
In one future, money will become intensely private: you will not be able to tell how much anyone has, or where it came from. But you will be able to feel confident about it not being counterfiet. Money itself is only representative of goods and services. Privacy in money therefore represents privacy in all matters.
In the other possible future, it will not be possible to pay for a stick of gum without the transactioin being tracable in both space and time to the person making the transaction. Compare and contrast.
Lawrence Lessig's Book (Score:2)
Re:Encryption's long and honorable history (Score:2)
Poor baby. Washington's own Federalist party was responsible for the Alien and Sedition act which likely authorized this very thing. Poetic justice methinks.
Crypto History (Score:2)
The Puzzle Palace : A Report on America's Most Secret Agency by James Bamford
ISBN: 0140067485 [amazon.com]
It was written in '83, (maybe before you where born Plasmoid if your in high school), so it doesn't cover modern stuff, but there is ALOT of crypto history covered in that book which could be very helpful.
Encryption's long and honorable history (Score:2)
In 1785, a resolution authorized the secretary of the Department of
Foreign Affairs to open and inspect any mail that related to the
safety and interests of the United States. The ensuing 'inspections'
caused prominent men, like George Washington, to complain of mail
tampering. According to various historians, it led James Madison,
Thomas Jefferson and James Monroe to write to each other in code -
that is, they encrypted their letters - in order to preserve the
privacy of their political discussion.
Read the PGP docs (Score:2)
don't forget PGP (Score:2)
========
Re:Don't be such a bastard, jclip. (Score:2)
If he doesn't know how to find basic stuff on the web (e.g. Yahoo + Google) he needs much more than just pointers on crypto. And all this crap about a poor kid who needs help to succeed in life is pure bullshit -- it explicitly does not apply to anybody who can manage to post his schoolwork as a Slashdot news item.
Kaa
Cryptolgia (Score:2)
Machine Cryptography and Modern Cryptanalysis, 1985, Out of Print
Cryptology: Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow, 1987, Out of Print
Cryptology: Machines, History and Methods, 1989, Out of Print
Selections from Cryptologia: History, People and Technology, 1998
You might be able to find them in a good university library.
Aegean Park Press [aegeanparkpress.com] is another good source of historical material on cryptography.
good sources for info (Score:2)
http://jya.com/crypto-free.htm [jya.com]
Learning About Cryptography [io.com]
Ritter's Crypto Glossary and [io.com]
Dictionary of Technical Cryptography
Encryption & Security Tutorial [auckland.ac.nz]
N.A. Crypto Archives [cryptography.org]
International PGP site [pgpi.org]
NSA National Cryptologic Museum [nsa.gov]
EFF [eff.org]
attrition.org crypto archive [attrition.org]
Bruce Schneier's Crypto-Gram [counterpane.com]
and last, but not least (the archive i developed)
PacketStorm Crypto Archives [securify.com]
there are lots and lots of excellent tutorials, docs, glossaries, and links to many of the great crypto sites in the world at all of the URLs above.
for the best info on NSA, ECHELON, misc paranoia, you should first check out Cryptome/JYA. i archived quite a bit of stuff related to your questions at the packetstorm site too - packetstorm.securify.com/crypt/nsa/ [securify.com].
feel free to email me directly if you like too. over the years, i have had some interesting experiences with the NSA, BXA, etc - primarily regarding my hosting of crypto archives, and personal investigations of NSA, ECHELON. if you want to discuss these things, get the pgp key for ken.williams@ey.com from www.keyserver.net, and send your key(s) and crypted msgs to tattooman@genocide2600.com
Check out Neal Stephenson's comments (Score:2)
<a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articl
A book recommendation (Score:2)
Read Neal Stephenson's Cryptonomicon (Score:2)
The big problem that governments have with cryptography, specifically the U.S. government, is that it prevents the government from using some of its most powerful weapons against organized crime. It's very difficult to launder money when you cannot hide it.
ENIGMA - POSSIBLY THE GREATEST SINGLE EFFECT (Score:2)
machine in WWII has possibly had the greatest
effect on the world today in terms on impact.
Andrew Cairncross leaked enigma decrypts from bletchly park to the KGB, and they readily acknowledge they won the largest tank battle of WWII because of it. his autobiography "the enigma spy" is available. Rommel was mainly defeated because enigma decrypts where used to pinpoint which ships where shipping fuel and ammunition to his troops to raids on convoys would have maximum effect. Almost every major victory in WWII had an enigma decrypt behind it some where. David Kahns the codebreakers is probably the best text to go to for information on the enigma itself.
Learning to do research (Score:2)
-rpl
Crypto And Crypto Law (Score:2)
I don't have much on the USA legal stuff (but that can be found on the above sites) but for the UK, currently fighting against one of the worst "Big Brother" Violation of the right to secrecy in communications bills known in the world, the UKCrypto discussion list archive [ucl.ac.uk] would be worth a look...
Finally, here are further links [demon.co.uk] to, for example, the crypto law survey which will give you an idea of the legality of Crypto in various countries.
Good luck, and we will look forward to seeing your report if you choose to post it to the web.
--
The computer industry's hidden crypto agenda (Score:2)
With DVDs and DMCA on the forefront, it's clear that cryptography has social ramifications that go beyond issues of security and privacy -- it's also a big technological stick companies hope to use to extract profits from consumers. Clearly this is true of the content companies (movies and audio recordings); more subtle are the motivations of the computer industry.
The computer industry players outwardly claim to want to make strong encryption available to everyone, since that is what their customers want to protect their privacy. And they don't want the hassle of multiple implementations with varying security levels and "foreign competition" (a buzzword that while theoretically true has not been substantiated with any real-life threat to revenues of the big companies complaining about it; small security-oriented companies I could sympathize with of course.) Overlooked however is the benefit that such computer companies, hardware and software, stand to gain: the ability to increase barriers to entry into their existing hardware/software markets through stronger protection of their intellectual property. The latest well-known example of this is Mattel/Learning Company's CyberPatrol encryption, but there are numerous other historic illustrations of this including Microsoft's infamous attempt to encrypt the Windows 3.1 beta error message routines indicating that DR-DOS was not supported.
Intel, for example, is already incorporating some encryption technology within their microprocessors (for currently reasonable purposes) that allows run-time modification of some of the chips' microcode for the purposes of issuing patches to bugs (e.g. the Pentium bug) on the chip. Details of this of course are only available under tightly restricted NDAs.
In the computer industry, you have to keep releasing new products to stay ahead of your competitors because they can, with time and some *legal* reverse-engineering, copy your product. Strong encryption technology built into hardware and software devices could make it practically near-impossible to perform such copying or legal reverse-engineering, thus raising even more substantial barriers to competition. Sure, protection of intellectual property is a good thing, handled reasonably well with existing legal mechanisms, (as seen by the industry's current success) but strong encryption would provide and cement a strong technological mechanism for protecting computer companies' (and others') intellectual property. The hardware or software code lying at the heart of a product can be encrypted whenever and wherever stored, and only unencrypted with the proper exchange of messages and keys.
This is a major social ramification of encryption that has remained unaddressed in the public at large, since the large computer companies (Intel, Microsoft, IBM, HP, etc.) best capable of implementing such complex mechanisms are not interested in advertising how much harder this will make the environment for their competition. Essentially, encryption greatly strengthens the technological capability of companies to arbitrarily "tie" two products together in a manner which competitors cannot substitute their product for either of the two components. While in the past, devices relied on a hard-to-copy physical interconnect to prevent copying or substitution of component parts, strong encryption enables a virtually foolproof virtual interconnect between components, and one that, unlike physical device specification, can make reverse-engineering nigh-impossible.
For example, take printer toner cartridges. If you can build build cheap, near-free encryption on both the toner cartridge and the printer, a printer designer can setup the printer to only work when a cartridge is inserted with the proper exchange of electronic encrypted messages. Because the encrypted message can involve a randomly-generated key component, an exchange-response protocol between the printer and the toner cartridge can become effectively impossible to reverse-engineer. Thus, someone who designs a printer cartridge that works in exactly the same manner physically will be prevented technologically from competing in the "printer consumables" market.
In that example, the printer cartridge is a solely physical component whose interoperability is limited solely by electronic encryption means. However, this encryption can similarly limit interoperability of computer hardware and software products in such a way that the encryption must be broken for an interoperable product to be designed.
Lest you think this concern is academic (computer companies haven't used weak encryption much, so why would they start using strong encryption now?), consider the singular difference between Microsoft's Kerberos implementation and standards-compliant ones. Microsoft fills one field with undocumented, and as I understand it, encrypted security ID information. (Better pointers to what is known about this undocumented feature appreciated.) In the name of selling you better security, the computer company sells you a self-serving product that locks you into their infrastructure and cycle of network externalities, limiting your ability to switch suppliers. (And in the case of Office2000 SR-1, it's not just a virtual network of products you have to connect with, but your system itself has to be *physically* connected to Microsoft over the Internet to register and activate their products.)
DMCA may have a loophole for interoperability purposes, but through strong encryption and techniques used in polymorphic viruses, computer companies should be able to insure that what isn't protected by law *is* protected by technology.
Remember, Bill Gates doesn't seem to think anti-trust law has any meaning or purpose in a world of software. On the contrary, it has more meaning than ever.
--LinuxParanoid, paranoid for Linux's sake
The Code Book (Score:2)
I have to agree (Score:2)
The way I read the request was not for a summary that could be turned into a paper, but for a recommendation for sources. I know how much time it takes to be up on everything that is going on even in a very narrow subfield. I do that for a couple of specialities where my work and hobbies both supply the motivation. And the fields for which I do it are much narrower than this. The time it would take the kid to develop enough of a background in both the math behind cryptography (which is beyond most college undergrads), and the protocols necessary to avoid compromising your security, and the legal issues surrounding cryptography is daunting. Then he would have the background to judge what are the best sources.
With that said, I have a broad, but not deep knowledge of cryptography. I would second the recommendation of Applied Cryptography. It is a good overview of the field. In particular, it was the first source I read that gave adequate treatment to protocol issues. They are mundane, boring, and absolutely essential to maintaining security. For a historic perspective of wartime use of cryptography and cryptanalysis and their impact, I suggest David Kahn's book The Codebreakers. I believe it has been updated in recent years.
Advice for Nerds, Research that Matters (Score:2)
If somebody's done the research, then I'll grab it from them. If somebody has already seperated the good stuff from the crap, then I can ignore the crap.
Granted, this case is over the top. It just smacks of "Okay, I got this project this morning, and I don't want to do any work." But I suspect that the real reason these actually get posted is not for the brat who wishes not to work, but for people like me who have a passing interest and now have a list of really good resources for crypto to read over the lunch hour.
One interesting side effect of not DingYOFM is that now that the links are posted on a public forum, should Plasmoid's teacher frequent
Distributed.Net Now To Help With Homework. (Score:2)
REUTERS, 04/07/00 -- Distributed.Net and Slashdot.Org announce Partnership. Press release claims new allies "...to explore "Massively Parallel Simian-Keyboard Output Research, with an eye towards individual education."
In an interview earlier this week, Rob Malda was quoted as saying "...and then we realized, hey, all these computers have people in front of them. I bet we could get them to do stuff too." This simple idea signalled the beginning of Distributed.Net's latest cooperative processing effort with Slashdot, tentatively named "MonkeyDo (tm)". Rave reviews have been pouring in ever since:
"I thought it was a great idea. I mean, there must be millions of people reading Slashdot right now, just sitting their drooling. All that brainpower was going completely to waste. Now, we can put all that extra thinking into solving complex and difficult problems like "how do I type 'crypto' into Google" or "how come the Dewey Decimal System at the library is so hard?"
MonkeyDo(tm) proponent Cliff, speaking alongside Hemos and CmdrTaco, said "We get millions of pageviews a day, and for the time it takes to download a page, our readers are just sitting there slack-jawed, not accomplishing anything! We decided that if we pooled their collective efforts, we could really help these kids!"
"I mean, we're not talking about a lot of brainpower, here", he added. "A tenth of an I.Q. point here, a third there. But with that many monkeys, and our innovative 'Anonymous Coward' function, we can be sure that one of them will eventually come up with the right answer!"
--
Everything you need to k ow about Crypto. (Score:2)
Re:Do your own homework! (Score:2)
Re:Do your own homework! (Score:2)
What is the slant on your project? (Score:2)
When you say that your project focuses on the effect of cryptography on society, is your project more "cryptography is used in banking and in cell phones and in..." or are you more into the "cryptography is one mechanism by which privacy can be protected in this age of immediate access to information"?
Though I personally believe that the second slant is more intellectually stimulating than the first, surely you could find a banker or some other official to tell and show you how cryptography is used in their line of work. Using diverse sources in this manner you could produce a project that would be informative if only a bit dry.
If I were you, I would instead take a look at the social concequences of a society whose citizens can keep whatever information they wish out of prying eyes, even the eyes of their own government. Is this a threat to the personal safety of the many or is it the ultimate expression of freedom? The good part about this slant on the issue is that events are happening soooo fast in this area that the most pertenent and exciting information can be easily found online. What could be much more exciting or pertenent than an analysis of how recent court findings and orders can effect or have effected the current state of cryptography today? (*cough MATTEL *cough*)
Oh, yea, one more thing: working css-auth.h and css-auth.c into your project is surely worth bonus points ;).
Brandon Nuttall
Homework and cheating... (Score:2)
thoughts of a law professor (Score:2)
Try the CSS Scandal (Score:2)
"Assume the worst about people, and you'll generally be correct"
Tim May's Cyphermonicon (Score:3)
There's no such thing... (Score:3)
The government (i.e. multinational corporations) is constantly spying on its citizens. Only the regular and widespread use of cryptography gives private citizens any hope of avoiding prying eyes.
________________________________
Show examples. (Score:3)
It demonstrates how there's a big difference between making something illegal (social limit) and making it impractical/difficult (technical limit).
[Note: Check into the legalities of "listening" before you do it. Here in Ontario (Canada) it is (or at least was) legal to listen to anything you want - it's illegal to rebroadcast or record/use whatever you hear without consent.]
some sources (Score:3)
Bruce Schneier's hotlinks [counterpane.com].
Look at Cryptome [jya.com]. Lots of information about Echelon, the MPAA/DeCSS issue, laws, export controls...
Mach 5 cryptography archives [mach5.com].
Designing Secure Software [sunworld.com].
Simson Garfinkel and Gene Spafford's book Web Security and Commerce [borders.com] is a very good introduction to cryptography and security issues.
Don't be such a bastard, jclip. (Score:3)
For Plasmoid: the RSA FAQ [rsasecurity.com] us a really good place to start, esp. if you've heard a lot of crypto-talk, but gotten lost among the alphebet-soup anagrams and what-means-what. Also, although you've probably been told this a cazillion times already, Schneier's Applied Cryptography is a helluva book-- comprehensive and well written-- worth every penny. He also writes a newsletter, The Crypto-Gram. Backissues are availible at the Counterpane [counterpane.com] website. You also might want to check out newsgroups like sci.crypt.
That's all I gots for you, kidd-o. Good luck on the prog.
The Crypto-Grams are your best source (Score:4)
Grab some mountain dew and fire up the printer: Bruce Schneier's Crypto-Gram(http://www.counterpane.com) is possibly the most intensive and well written splashdown into the world of crypto that you're going to find.
I spent an entire evening a while back catching myself up with it--I have a binder sitting in my office that is devoted to nothing else. Bruce's book, Applied Cryptography, is an amazing piece of work(filled, incidentally, with enough humor to keep you up, but enough lucid explanations to leave your jaw dropped...the fact that I actually understand the incredibly complex digital cash protocols out there is a testament to Bruce's skill as a writer)...but his Crypto-Gram, besides being an excellent preview to the writing style you can expect, should you give a very fulfilling look at crypto past and present--everything from the basic tech to advanced concepts.
My personal suggestion would be to start with the oldest one and move forward until you hit the present. Trust me--get through those, and you'll understand alot of what's going on. It'll take you an evening, but you'll enjoy it.
Extremely high signal/noise ratio in those.
Yours Truly,
Dan Kaminsky
DoxPara Research
http://www.doxpara.com
from the we're-ok-you're-not-ok dept. (Score:4)
TLA National also recognizes Mr. Gore for his accomplishments in creating a national internet for the purpose of mass-marketing and e-commerce. With these technologies, TLA National hopes to increase it's competitive offerings to you, the customer. Please note that under the terms of the DMCA you may not criticize or reverse-engineer this post. This is to ensure the lowest possible prices to you.
Fine print: Cryptography is illegal, but copyright protection mechanisms are not. Monopolies are illegal, but strategic alliances and mergers are not. Price hiking is illegal, but "competitive offerings" are not. We use the latter terminology and technology in all cases.. even though it is identical to the former, pay no attention to the double-talk... it's there for your protection afterall. What we're protecting you from, is of course protected under copyright law. Attempting to reverse-engineer this post to derive the truth is a felony and prosecutable by up to a $30,000 fine and/or 3 years in jail.
We appreciate your cooporation. -- Three Letter Acronym National
Ask Slashdot (to do your homework) (Score:4)
Google? (Score:4)
A brief visit to Yahoo or Google would provide tons of information to sift through. If the person asking doesn't know this, it seems a waste to time to point him anywhere.
I would advise CmdrTaco and Hemos to scan through the Titanium Cranium awards (www.fourmilab.ch) -- there they'll find many more similar items. Here is an example:
From clueless@aol.com Wed Apr 17 14:38:40 1996
Subject: Project for school
Dear sir,
I am working on a project for my trigonometry class that involves the
orbit of the earth and the orbit of Haley's Comet. The problem is to
show whether Haley's Comet will crash into the earth using trig
functions to prove my position. Can you send me information on these
orbits?
I also need information about Haley's Comet for a research paper that
is part of the project. Would you be able to help me with this?
The project was assigned just this week and is due on Friday, April
19.
Thank you very much
Kaa
Sources (Score:4)
Anyway - some of the sources I used:
Some good sources:
The Codebreakers, David Kahn. *The* source of cryptographic stories and research up until the 60's. A must have.
Applied Cryptography, Bruce Schneier. A lot of practical advice, but also more political views.
Encyclopedia of Cryptology, David Newton - Reference work with clear explanations for the most in current and older cryptography.
The Codebook - Simon Singh. A lot easier than the above material.
and finally some links:
http://www.hack.gr/users/dij/crypto/
http://www.rsa.com
http://www.eskimo.com/~weidai/algorithms.html
Bibliography (Score:5)
I did a little work in this area in school as well. I agree with an earlier poster that the resources are out there and you should draw your own conclusions. The paper I wrote focused on the influence of the NSA with the development of DES and the growth of the nascent crypto community. I think I can help you by giving you a bibliography:
Bamford, James. The Puzzle Palace. Penguin Books Ltd., Middlesex England. 1983.
Brankstand, D.K. et al. "Report on the Workshop on Cryptography in Support of Computer Security." NBSIR 77-1291, National Bureau of Standards, Sep 21-22, 1976, September 1977.
Coppersmith, D. "The Data Encryption Standard (DES) and its strength against attacks." IBM Journal of Research and Development. V. 38, N. 3. May 1994. 243-250.
Denning, Peter J. "Government Classification of Private Ideas." Communications of the ACM. March 1981. 105.
"Encryption Technology, Privacy, and National Security." Technology Review. August September 1986. [get author and page number]
Foerstel, Herbert N. Secret Science: Federal Control of American Science and Technology. Praeger Publishers, Westport CT. 1993.
"The Government's Classification of Private Ideas". Hearings, 96th Congress, February 28, March 21, August 1980. (Washington, DC: U.S. GPO, 1981), 271.
Kinnucan, Paul. "Data Encryption Gurus: Tuchman and Meyer." Cryptologia. V.2 N 4. October 1978. 371-382.
Kolata, Gina Bari. "Cryptography: A New Clash Between Academic Freedom and National Security". Science. August 29th, 1980. 995-996.
Massey, J.L. "An Introduction to Contemporary Cryptology." Proceedings of the IEEE. V. 76, N. 5. May 1988. 533-549.
Schneier, Bruce. Applied Cryptography. John Wiley & Sons, Inc. New York, New York. 1996.
Shapley, Deborah and Kolata, Gina Bari. "Cryptology: Scientists Puzzle over Threat to Open Research, Publication." Science. September 30, 1977. 1345-46.
Shaker, Richard. "The Agency that came in from the Cold: exceprts from an address at the Joint Mathematics Meeting in Baltimore on January 8, 1992." Notices of the American Mathematical Society. V. 39, N. 5. May 1, 1992. 408-411.
U.S. Senate Select Committee on Intelligence. "Unclassified Summary: Involvement of the NSA in the development of the Data Encryption Standard." Cryptologia. October 1978, pp 387-389.