Ongoing news reports in the international media have revealed operational details about the Anglophone cryptographic agencies’ global surveillance of both foreign and domestic nationals. The reports mostly emanate from a cache of top secret documents leaked by ex-NSA contractor Edward Snowden, which he obtained whilst working for Booz Allen Hamilton, one of the largest contractors […]
Global surveillance disclosures (2013–present) Read More »
A blockchain is a growing collection of documents known as blocks that are connected together via encryption. Each block includes a cryptographic hash of the preceding block, a timestamp, and transaction data. The timestamp demonstrates that the transaction data existed at the moment the block was released in order to be included in its hash.
The bitcoin network is a peer-to-peer payment network that operates on a cryptographic protocol. Users send and receive bitcoins, the units of currency, by broadcasting digitally signed messages to the network using bitcoin cryptocurrency wallet software. Transactions are recorded into a distributed, replicated public database known as the blockchain, with consensus achieved by a proof-of-work system called mining. Satoshi Nakamoto, the designer of bitcoin, claimed that design and coding of bitcoin began
Cryptography, or cryptology, is the practice and study of techniques for secure communication in the presence of adversarial behavior. More generally, cryptography is about constructing and analyzing protocols that prevent third parties or the public from reading private messages; various aspects of information security, such as data confidentiality, data integrity, authentication, and non-repudiation, are central to modern cryptography. Modern cryptography exists at the intersection of the disciplines of mathematics, computer science, electrical engineering, communication