Encryption vs. Censorship, Round 2 | Tom Shrimpton | TEDxMtHood

We often think of the internet as a place where we can find and share anything. However, in many countries around the world, internet restrictions force users to only view what the government deems acceptable. While there are a few solutions around this, they are all fairly detectable by the right machines. However, Tom and his team have created a way to let users in these countries access information like never before, all while looking like they are using the internet exactly as the government thinks they should.

Tom Shrimpton is an associate professor in the Department of Computer Science at Portland State University. He earned a Ph.D. in 2004 from the University of California (Davis), and he is a recipient of a National Science Foundation CAREER award. Tom’s research focuses on the theory and application of cryptography. In 2012–2014, he worked on a technology called Format-Transforming Encryption. For this, he and his collaborators were awarded a generous gift from Google Executive Chairman Eric Schmidt.

This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at http://ted.com/tedx