Episode 3 - Cryptography

History of code making and code breaking, languages, pen and paper cyphers, WWII enigma, modern cryptography, RSA, PGP and passwords

Show Notes:

  • Cyphertext: coded message, plaintext: decoded message
  • Language is a code: hieroglyphics
  • Morse Code
  • Classic ciphers (pen and paper) pre WWII:
    • Transposition cypher
    • Shift cypher: caesar
    • Substitution cyphers
    • “PIG PEN Cipher
    • Monoalphabetic:
    • Polyalphabetic:
    • Vigenere Cypher
  • One time pads
  • Enigma machine
  • Digital cryptography:
    • Binary and bit manipulations: bit twiddle, AND/OR/XOR
    • Key distribution, the problem all ciphers have
    • RSA
    • Pretty Good Privacy (PGP):
    • Digital Signing
    • Hashing: MD5, Bcrypt, SHA, AGRON2, etc
    • Description of some hashing algorithms

Stay tuned for part 2, where we discuss our favorite unsolved cyphers.