This is a blog about encryption, to help readers understand how it works and how to use it. I will try to explain why encryption is important, what it can provide, and what the risks are.
Art is a common theme in this blog. The reason for this is that encryption and privacy are essential to the freedom of speech, art and many other liberties people enjoy today. The act of communicating, whether it be a conversation or classified information, is ultimately what gives rise to these liberties.
Telling stories is an ancient tradition and an important part of humanity. Today’s technologies allow us to tell our stories in new ways and without limits. But there are forces who want to take away your privacy and freedom of speech so they can control the flow of these stories.
Today, we are all artists. We can use technology to share our stories with the world or we can let those who would control us take away our freedoms by not using encryption. Technology is only powerful if it is in the hands of the people. Encryption allows everyone to speak freely without fear of reprisal. Technology should never be used in a way that allows for mass surveillance by anyone, whether government or criminal organization.
This blog will help you learn about encryption and privacy tools so that you can tell your stories in new ways and tell them safely**
One of the bigger surprises for me was just how easy it was to find people who wanted to talk about their work. They didn’t have to know I was a writer; they just wanted to talk about their work. That included cryptographers, who were happy to explain how they did what they did, and lawyers, who were happy to explain what laws made their jobs hard.
I’ve been doing this since 1999, and in that time I’ve learned a lot about encryption, privacy and security. This blog is where I’ll post those weekly essays.
Tone:Professional
Yesterday, I wrote a blog post on my personal website detailing how to use the Tor browser and the associated Tor browser bundle to protect your anonymity online. The post was aimed at non-technical users, providing them with step-by-step instructions on how to protect themselves.
The post was picked up by the Guardian and within a short time more than a quarter of a million people had viewed it. This was despite the fact that every moment the article was being viewed it was at risk of being taken down by the authorities.
Yesterday’s post was not an isolated incident; in 2012 I wrote several articles about privacy and security for the Guardian newspaper in Britain and for The Atlantic magazine in America. I have also worked with Wired Magazine, BoingBoing and other outlets to provide expert advice on issues around cryptography and technology.
In addition to writing about this topic I have also been involved in technology projects designed to make the internet more secure. These include projects like Tor, Open Whisper Systems (developers of Signal) and LEAP (Law Enforcement Access Project). In fact, last year I left my position at Google to become an independent technology consultant specialising in security and privacy issues.
I’m writing this piece today because having spent years now working as an expert
Most encryption technologies are based on math, but some are based on simple mechanics. The books in this list tend to focus on the mechanical methods. They are not difficult to make, and once you know how they work, you can invent your own.
The locks in this list are part of a family called “bookshelf safes.” Because they look like ordinary books, they offer something that no other kind of safe can: privacy. Anyone who comes across them will surmise that they contain valuable things. But if you don’t want anyone to know what is valuable to you, there is no better place to put it than inside a book about cryptography.
Book safes are an excellent way for people who want privacy to get it without having to buy or carry anything. But there are many kinds of people who need privacy: activists, revolutionaries, victims of domestic violence, people who want to hide their assets from an unfaithful spouse, and law-abiding citizens who just don’t like the idea of carrying everything in plain view. A homemade book safe might be just what you need.*
There are two kinds of encryption, symmetric and asymmetric. The difference between these is that a message encrypted with a symmetric key can be decrypted with the same key. This means the key must be shared with the recipient in advance, but it also means that if one side of a conversation encrypts several messages with the same key, anyone who intercepts the messages can read all of them.
History has shown us that symmetric encryption is too dangerous to use on anything but small scale communications. The problem is that if you encrypt a message with a secret key, and then lose the secret key, you have no way to decrypt your transmissions in the future. This can be a problem because it’s possible to lose keys by accident and sometimes by malice.
Some people suggest using symmetric encryption anyway, using a passphrase as the secret key. This is an improvement over using something like a password or phrase, because passphrases are longer and harder to guess. But this doesn’t solve the fundamental problem; if you lose your passphrase, you don’t just lose access to your own communications but to everyone else’s as well.
Asymmetric encryption solves this problem. In asymmetric encryption, each side of a conversation has some data unique to
I am a graduate student studying contemporary art for my M.A. at Goldsmith’s College, University of London. I have a B.A. in visual arts from New York University and I am an artist working in installation art, sculpture and drawing. In addition to writing blog posts on this site, I also contribute to an online magazine called Contemporary Art Daily, which is based in the UK, and curate exhibitions for various organizations around the world. I hope you enjoy my blog!
