after the first review using Normal view in Open Office, i thought the seminar was excellent altho the math was over my head especially the parts about the modulus operator. it also clarified several principles of cryptography and quantum computing that i had been confused about.
this is an excellent historical review of internet communication/cryptography from its beginnings and the motivations for privacy.
i went over the seminar a 2nd time, this time in OpenOffice with the Slideshow turned on.
i hadn't realized eto had transitions built into the slides and it made a huge difference in illustrating what is going on with the diagrams mapping out the messaging protocols. the step by step build-ons illustrate the principles nicely. this was extremely helpful information that i have never seen presented like this before. the presentation ties the history of different forms of cryptography, RSA/PGP/AES, symmetric vs asymmetric algorithms, quantum computing, ECDSA, hashing and Bitcoin all together in one place.
he also talks about various Cryptanalysis Techniques or Attacks such as man in the middle, timing, tempest, probing, social engineering, and rubber hose techinques.
other topics included one-time pad encryption, stream ciphers, and ECC.
there is a table in the presentation which illustrates the problem of trying to crack RSA as the key lengthens. one can gain comfort knowing that it will be quite a while before we're threatened by hostile entities.
he also gets practical for us non technical folks and talks about the role of Certificate Authorities, SSL, and TSL for website security and cellphones as well as our beloved Truecrypt.
all in all its comprehensive and there's something in there for everyone.
when i read Wikipedia on these subjects i continually get lost in the trees moving from one page to another thru all the hyperlinks. personally when i view presentations in slide format such as this, it helps both at the beginning and at the end to put the settings on Slide Sorter to get a 30,000 ft view of the forest from above tying everything together.
this pic is from one of his slides. 1 BTC to the person who can make me a satisfactory and realistic moving gif file of that P, Q line and resulting R value for my avatar using this pic
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i would encourage everyone to contribute to eto's crowdfunding campaign to get his Armory project up and running. at least get the slideshow which is easily worth the $10! you'll understand Bitcoin much better!
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=64449;all
