The Birthday Paradox: How a Surprising Math Trick Secures Digital Systems 🎂

Discover how a simple probability puzzle reveals the secrets behind digital security and encryption. Learn why only 23 people are needed for a 50% chance of shared birthdays—and how this principle impacts cybersecurity today!

The Birthday Paradox: How a Surprising Math Trick Secures Digital Systems 🎂
Nash Talks Tech
806 views • Jun 27, 2025
The Birthday Paradox: How a Surprising Math Trick Secures Digital Systems 🎂

About this video

Here's the deal: You only need 23 people in a room for a 50% chance that two of them share a birthday. This isn't just a fun fact—it’s the same principle hackers used to exploit a weakness in digital 'fingerprints' (hashes) to make malicious files look safe.

This is exactly what happened with the SHA-1 hash, forcing a move to much stronger security like SHA-256 to keep our data safe. So the next time you see a security update, you'll know it's fighting off this exact kind of digital 'birthday attack'!

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#BirthdayParadox #HashCollision #Cybersecurity #Cryptography #SHA1 #SHA256 #ComputerScience #TechExplained #PasswordSecurity

Video Information

Views

806

Likes

8

Duration

0:55

Published

Jun 27, 2025

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