Cryptography: The science of sending secret messages - Jon Sorenson

Apr. 3rd, 10th, 17th, & 24th - 4:00 pm - 5:00 pm ET, Zoom

$110 for all 4 or $30 for each session

Cryptography is the science of secret messages. Participants will learn about a wide variety of cryptosystems, from Caesar's cipher to quantum cryptography. Hands-on examples and secret messages will be sent! We will discuss the important role cryptography played in history, including the breaking of the enigma cipher by Alan Turing and his team during World War II.

• April 3 Week #1 Classical Cryptography - we will learn, and practice, substitution ciphers and Vigenere, and their use up through the 1800s.
• April 10 Week #2 Enigma, Alan Turing, and World War II - we will talk about encryption machines, the roles they played in WW2, and the work of Alan Turing and other cryptographers and the advent of the computer.
• April 17 Week #3 Public-Key Cryptography - this is what we use today for the web, banking, passwords, you name it.  We will learn how it works and talk about some ethical issues around strong cryptography.  We will also talk about cryptocurrency and blockchain.
• April 24 Week #4 Quantum - quantum computers have the potential to break most public-key systems.  We will talk about how, and what we plan to do about it.