Post: #1

Does anyone here dabble in crytography as a hobby? A friend of mine actually got a masters in computer engineering or something with a focus on it, and its really a huge subject. I looked into the basics and a bit of the history of it, I think around the time of devinci code, but quickly got lost as it seems like it's heavily into the realm of programming and computers now.

Similar thing with these crypto currencies. At a fundimental level I don't understand 'what' they are, or 'why' they're so big.

Has anyone read any base level books that provide decent insights and build slowly on subjects?

Post: #2

When I was in college I was into it for a while.

Cryptography is basically practical applications of math problems which are hard to solve but where solutions are easily verified (or rejected). If you really want to understand what's going on start with number theory and group theory - that's where most of the problems that are used today come from. There's some more exotic stuff in algebraic topology and sometimes the theories used to crack cryptography systems get pretty out there.

Post: #3

What do you want to know about it?

If you're running a mafia or drug cartel, the only encryption you can rely on is one-time pads.

Post: #4

Look up Bruce Schneider. Legend in the Cryptography world. He wrote a book called "Applied Cryptography" which is considered one of best authoritative resources. Also is an active blogger.

Post: #5

Actually yah now that you mention it, I've read his blog and two of his books on security ('Schneier on Security' and 'Beyond Fear') because I thought years ago things wern't really any safer and they were employing the absolute worse methods for actual security. Anyways really enjoyed his work. I now recall him mentioning things about cryptography too.

And I guess I'm just taking a bit more of an interest in it now because through all the security leaks and spying going on, allegations the NSA has access to everyone's android or iphone and the surge in popularity of crypto currencies. The US gov't in particular is doing things that while I suppose legal through the various acts passed, I don't feel are in the spirit of the constituion or what the founding fathers had in mind. In short I think in the last 13 years there has been a huge decrease in the amount of trust and security between all parties out there.

But I guess just curious about how it's done. Hopefully I'm not getting too tinfoil hat-ey.

Post: #6

Oh, if you want to know how they actually snoop shit as opposed to just how the encryption works check out something like SmashTheStack (http://io.smashthestack.org/). Usually they try not to have to break encryption because that's computationally expensive and not always timely. It's far easier just to compromise end systems.

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2013/09/05...ncryption#

Post: #7

I dug into it a bit and then got into stenography as an idea.

@Ensam They're looking for weaknesses in the application "stacks" that control the memory allotted to an application. For "stack smashing" they're looking to exploit an arbitrary memory address and push arbitrary code into it.

Post: #8

The Code Book by Simon Singh is a good introductory book (not a text book) into the world of cryptography. Written for someone who doesn't know anything about cryptography.