Category Archives: Cryptography

Quantum Cryptography (a background)

In this article I hope to illustrate some of the ideas behind the strange topic of Quantum Cryptography, though I won’t be discussing cryptography itself, that comes later - just the necessary physics.
First we must consider the nature of light (this can be generalised to any particle once we get all quantum mechanical, but let’s [...]

Also posted in Geeky, Modern Cryptography, Physics, Science | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

Mythbusters Gagged

Adam Savage, of the excellent ‘Mythbusters’ programme(*) reports that they were going to do a segment on RFID chips only to have the lawyers descend from Visa, American Express etc.
Texas Instruments comes on along with chief legal counsel for American Express, Visa, Discover, and everybody else… They were way, way outgunned and they absolutely made [...]

Posted in Cryptography | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Bank unilaterally changes password

Just seen a funny, but worrying, story on the BBC, a man who had the password ‘Lloyds is pants’ on his bank account had it changed by the bank to ‘no it’s not’.
It was changed as it was ‘inappropriate’. He tried to change it to ‘Lloyds is Rubbish’ - or ‘Barclays is better’ but this [...]

Posted in Cryptography | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

GeoHashing

Via xkcd I learned of a new idea called ‘Geohashing‘

Essentially the idea is that based on some seed data, some complicated sums are done to give a location.
People get to that location for a meetup.
A map tool is available which does the sums for you. You set the date, click your area and it gives [...]

Also posted in Geeky, Maths, Modern Cryptography | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

The Cold War is Back?

Following the Alex Litivenko murder, it appears that we never left the Cold War, with allegations of MI6 and KGB involvement in a murder, claim and counter-claim, with intrigue and mystery.
All the stuff of a good Le Carré novel.
I’d be surprised if someone wasn’t already working on a screenplay or novelization. A thought that’s [...]

Also posted in Espionage | Tagged , , | 1 Comment
  • RSS Links

  • RSS Good Reads web

  • Categories