VTLUUG:2013-11-21

Date, Time and Location

• Thursday, November 21, 2013
• 20:30 - 22:00
• WLH 350

Technical Talks & General Discussion

Dr. Ezra Brown - Chocolate Key Cryptography: A Delicious Way to Send Secret Messages

Abstract

The art and science of secure communication is called
cryptography. To send someone a secret message, you need two things:
(1) a message scrambler ("the cryptosystem"), and (2) a piece of
information that tells the sender and the receiver just how the
scrambling is done ("the key"). Keeping the key in the right hands and
out of the wrong hands is a major problem for cryptographers, and
public key cryptography is a solution to this problem that is at work
on every computer and in every network in the world.This talk is about
Chocolate Key Cryptography, which is a way to describe a certain
public key cryptosystem that is easy to learn, fun, interactive, and
delicious.

Biographical Sketch

Ezra (Bud) Brown grew up in New Orleans, has
degrees from Rice and LSU, and has been at Virginia Tech since 1969,
where he is currently Alumni Distinguished Professor of Mathematics.
Most of his research has been in number theory, but one of his
favorite papers is one he wrote with a sociologist. During the
summers, he does applied mathematics in the DC area. He enjoys
singing, playing jazz piano, kayaking, and gardening, and he
occasionally bakes biscuits for his students.