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clear CIAO Focus, June 2004: Cryptology and Information Security
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Cryptology is the science of protecting, disguising, or encrypting communications. The field of cryptology spans several subfields and disciplines, most importantly cryptography (writing in code) and cryptanalysis (deducing encrypted information). Secure financial transactions, the protection of sensitive or private data, the confident use of data transmission channels and many more now mundane dealings all depend in some measure on cryptological techniques. In the United States, cryptography is considered a munition and is covered by the International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR) under the control of the president. Concern that terrorists or criminals would use encryption to send undecipherable messages caused the Clinton administration and the Federal Bureau of Investigation to oppose a particular encryption technology, called strong encryption, and ban its export. The ban was lifted in 1999 under industry pressure. Continued rapid increases in computing power have led some experts to predict that the balance between cryptography and cryptanalysis will shift in favor of cryptographers. However, more powerful computers will also allow for faster, large scale "brute force" decryption. Established in 1952, the National Security Agency heads the cryptology efforts of the U.S. government and armed forces.

This month CIAO examines information security


From CIAO's database:

Who is Big Brother? (PDF)

Security Implications for Wired India: Role of Technology

ISQ Handbook 2003

How Much is Enough? A Risk-Management Approach to Computer Security (PDF)

Civil Liberties and Security in Cyberspace

International CIIP Handbook 2004: An Inventory and Analysis of Protection Policies in Fourteen Countries

Government Secrecy and Knowledge Production: A Survey of Some General Issues



Outside Links*:

OECD's Guidelines for the Security of Information Systems and Networks
http://www.oecd.org/dataoecd/59/0/1946946.pdf

Information Warfare Monitor
http://www.infowar-monitor.net/

Sun Tzu Art of War in Information Warfare, National Defense University
http://www.ndu.edu/inss/siws/cont.html

Analysis of an Electronic Voting System, JHU Information Security Institute
http://avirubin.com/vote.pdf

Workshop on Economics and Information Security
http://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/users/rja14/econws.html

Enigma Machine (Applet)
http://www.ugrad.cs.jhu.edu/~russell/classes/enigma/


* Outside links are not maintained. For broken outside links, CIAO recommends the Way Back Machine [http://www.archive.org/].

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