Homework: Blown to Bits Chapter 5 pages 21-36 Questions

chapter5.pdf (bitsbook.com)

Questions corresponding to pages 21-36:

1. What is the Data Encryption Standard (DES)?
2. What is Advanced Encryption Standard (AES)?
3. What is public key cryptography?

• a.One way computation? (just the general concept)
• b. Public key encryption?
• c. Digital signatures?
• d. What is the RSA algorithm?
• e. With a digital signature, what is a certificate?
• f. What are certification authorities?

4. How do we know we are involved in an encrypted web transaction?
5. What were the crypto wars about?
6. Who is Phil Zimmerman?
7. Why isn't all email encrypted? (HINT: 3 reasons)
8. What is the international ECHELON system?
9. BIG PICTURE QUESTION TO PONDER: "As encryption becomes as ordinary a tool for personal messages as it already is for commercial transactions, will the benefits to personal privacy, free expression, and human liberty outweigh the costs to law enforcement and national intelligence, whose capacity to eavesdrop and wiretap will be at an end?" (p. 36)