Posts Tagged "Encryption"
Cryptography in Media : Where the Technology is Going
In the third and final part of the series we will discuss cryptography in media and where the technology might be going. Digital Rights Management uses different technologies to protect copyrights to movies, music and software. In 1998, Bill Clinton signed the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), which criminalized the production, dissemination, and use of certain cryptanalytic techniques and technology; specifically, those that could be used to circumvent DRM technological schemes. Digital Millennium Copyright Act DRM is one of the most controversial uses of cryptology today. People argue that they should have the right to copy the media that they purchased legally to some other form. This could be copying a CD to an mp3 player or backing up a DVD to protect against lose or damage.
Read MoreModern Uses of Cryptography
Modern uses of cryptology dates back to World War I where the US was helping the British capture and decipher messages from Germany. At this point in the war the US had remained neutral. Then a telegram was intercepted (The Zimmermann telegram) from Germany to Mexico. Basically what it said was that Germany would divide up the US with Mexico if they would help in the war effort. The US ended its position of neutrality soon after.
In World War II, there were many uses of cryptology. The infamous Enigma machine used by the German military was one of the more famous ones. This was an electro-mechanical, portable cipher machine. It was able to encrypt and decrypt messages. The Enigma machine was a combination of keys, plugs and rotors creating a complex mechanical machine. The Enigma was first commercial available in the 1920s. Governments and military of many nations adopted this type of cryptography. A British mathematician, Alan Turing, was able to crack the code which helped in the Allied victory. The US was also successful in breaking many of the Japanese codes too. This lead to a win at Midway Island, turning the war in the Pacific. Another message that was intercepted lead to the death of Admiral Yamamoto. He was scheduled to visit a naval base in the Solomon Islands, as his plane approached it was ambushed and shot down. The US was not the only country able to break codes. The Japanese were also able to break US codes, with the exception of one. <!–more–>The Navajo language was used as a code. The language was perfect for code because it was an unwritten language and had no alphabet. The idea came from the use of Native American languages in World War I. The Japanese were never able to crack Navajo language code. You might remember the movie Windtalkers.
Read MoreCryptography & Encryption: What is it and Why is it used?
In this three part series I plan on exploring cryptography and the history of cryptography. Cryptography is such a broad part of our lives we do not even notice the smallest applications, shopping on eBay or watching satellite television. I bet you even used cryptology when you were in school and did not even know it. Ever write a message in numbers instead of letters? Each letter of the alphabet correlated to its number position in the alphabet. The number sequence 3,16,25,12,20,15,12,15,7,25 equals cryptology. This is a form of cryptology in its most basic form.
Read MoreWebster’s dictionary defines Cryptography as :
n. 1. The act or art of writing in code or secret characters; also, secret characters, codes or ciphers, or messages written in a secret code.
2. The science which studies methods for encoding messages so that they can be read only by a person who knows the secret information required for decoding, called the key; it includes cryptanalysis, the science of decoding encrypted messages without possessing the proper key, and has several other branches; see for example steganography.
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