Secrets Unveiled: The Power of Cryptography in Our Connected World 🔐

Josh Zepps, Simon Singh, Orr Dunkelman, Tal Rabin, and Brian Snow discuss how, since the earliest days of communication, clever minds have devised methods for enciphering messages to shield them from prying eyes. Today, cryptography has moved beyond the realm of dilettantes and soldiers to become a sophisticated scientific art—combining mathematics, physics, computer science, and electrical engineering. It not only protects messages, but it also safeguards our privacy. From email to banking transactions, modern cryptography is used everywhere. But does it really protect us? What took place was a discussion of cryptography’s far-reaching influence throughout history from Julius Caesar’s reign to Julian Assange’s WikiLeaks, and the ways in which it—and our privacy—are constantly under assault today as threats lurk behind IP addresses, computational power increases, and our secrets move online.

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Original Program Date: June 4, 2011
MODERATOR: Josh Zepps
PARTICIPANTS: Orr Dunkelman, Tal Rabin, Simon Singh, Brian Snow

Cryptography In A Connected World 00:00

Josh Zepps Introduction 01:33

Participant Introductions 02:30

What is the history of Cryptography? 04:52

What's the difference between Cryptography and Encryption? 06:56

How the enigma machine works. 12:09

You’re Only as Secure as Your Weakest Link 19:18

Public key and private key encryption example. 22:09

What is the distinction between hacking and cryptanalysis? 26:55

The NSA and what they are looking for? 28:25

How do we establish cyber security? 36:20

How do systems get broken into? 45:30

How do you break a code? 56:38

Public key and the key distribution problem. 01:03:04

Codes will need to be tough due to mathematicians getting better. 01:08:15

The cloud and how we protect it. 01:09:22

In a world that is increasingly networked, How do we protect ourselves? 01:14:30

Online voting ... When and how? 01:20:52