I’ve been pondering on what to blog about? How about the many passwords that we use or have to remember?? I lost my password so I had to have the wordpress auto response password robot send me a new one. But what about the other passwords we need to remember but sometimes forget? There might be a entire can of worms there. Lose your banking password and you can’t pay your bills on time online!! How about when you have that occasional memory lapse with all that is on your mind at the ATM machine!! It happens to people all the time, but some don’t really admit it.
Since we are on the topic of passwords how about the encryption methods used online. I have been researching this topic. Julius Caesar was to have started the Caesar Cypher Cryptography method when sending messages to his guards. He would use the A-Z alphabet and would make A=D, B=E, etc. This went down as one of the first encryption techniques. With the alphabet it is a mod26 that is used.
Then during WWI and WWII they used dot and dashes of morse code or words that had a different meaning to things. Now we have encryption on our computers that help other people from invading and stealing our information. The ASCII code can be changed in text or numbers so that nobody can read it until that person who is to get the information. I found this cool encryption and decryption site. ASCII Text Encryption and Decryption Tool
I’m still looking into this and like anything there is development software that I will be able to test on my own computer and hope that I don’t screw it up! It is called openPGP (Pretty Good Privacy). Back to book reading.
If you are interested in cryptography, a really excellent book to read is The Code Book by Simon Singh. He goes through codes and code-breaking from the Caesar cipher to quantum cryptography (in fact, this is one of the few discussions I’ve read on quantum subjects that I actually found comprehensible).
There are great chapters on Bletchley Park, the cracking of Enigma, and the development of public-key cryptography. There’s also a realy neat section where Mr. Singh explains how cryptographic techniques were used to “decipher” dead languages, such as Egyptian hieroglyphics and an unknown Minoan script. Very highly recommended.
Comment by Rob Grabowski — September 5, 2007 @ 5:26 am
Thanks Rob I heard of Bletchley Park it mentioned something about WWII.
Comment by exb902 — September 9, 2007 @ 1:24 am
I keep all of my passwords on a separate USB drive. I protect this drive more than anything. Losing this is more important than losing my SS number. Which just brings up another thing I have to protect and worry about. I wonder how many other people have put their passwords on one of these drives and and lost it causing a breach of information?
Comment by Ron — October 28, 2007 @ 9:51 pm