Tag: society

Trusting the Trade-Off

On December 1, 2019

It is important to look at surveillance in the correct way, as an inanimate idea. Surveillance is but a tool used by entities in order to collect data about whoever is being surveilled. Thus a mistrust of surveillance lies fundamentally in the mistrust of authority and the powers delegated to it. My first primary argument is the importance of a social contract. The very idea of a government in a society is a trade off, where citizens give up certain rights in exchange for security and stability provided by the government. It is necessary to give up certain rights in order to live in a society with a government. Putting aside infringement on citizens privacy, there is no denying that when it comes to purely catching illicit activity, surveillance is extremely effective. Therefore the evils of privacy infringement need to be weighed against the good given by the surveillance. When considering the internet, the idea that privacy is an expectation falls apart when under scrutiny. Considering the internet as a public exchange of ideas makes it no different from a public plaza, where a conversation does not have the same expectation of privacy that it does in someone’s house.

My second argument is that the shortcomings of people should not be put unto the tools that they use. Fixing the government and its many problematic areas is an important problem, one which we will be solving until the end of time. Privacy abuse is the misuse of the information that is provided by surveillance. Therefore there is a large potential for abuse. However the government and law enforcement is already extremely powerful, and yet most people are okay with police officers carrying weapons, and the government controlling the military, whose resources are practically unlimited. Trusting higher authority with those tools is possible, and thus it is possible to use surveillance to benefit all.

The Accessibility of Knowledge

By sareennl

On September 5, 2012

In Student Posts

In Simon Singh’s The Code Book, he states “Cryptanalysis could not be invented until a civilization has reached a sufficiently sophisticated level of scholarship.” If such a sophisticated level of scholarship was needed to invent cryptanalysis, and cryptanalysts were considered to be of ‘higher’ scholarship, why are amateurs capable of decoding ciphers themselves?

Is the world becoming more intelligent? That I do not know. But it is obvious that knowledge is spreading and learning is occurring more vigorously throughout the world than in the past. As children grow, they are expected to conquer challenges using the mind, not their fists, and grow mentally as they progress through the education system. They are expected to continue their path of learning to higher degrees in high school and college, and expand on their critical thinking abilities. Therefore, society’s expectations have furthered amateur cryptanalysts ability to decode messages.

Frequency analysis is a very complex approach to cracking a code. Yet our minds are capable of applying frequency analysis subconsciously when the opportunity presents itself. For example, in the word game, Hangman, our mind subconsciously guesses letters that are frequently seen in words (vowels, specific consonants). Ultimately, people can only apply “on their own” approaches if they have been exposed to higher levels of critical thinking. Education and the accessibility of knowledge provide the world with these abilities to critically think and solve problems. Amateur cryptanalysts, though untrained, can accredit their code breaking skills to the education they’ve received from such an early age.

Frequency Analysis Utilized by Amateurs

By dininoed

On August 30, 2012

In Student Posts

When Al-Kindi first developed cryptanalysis it was groundbreaking and highly advanced for his society. Today, our society is highly intellectual and focuses on stimulating problem solving abilities in young children. With the knowledge of frequency analysis, many amateur cryptanalysts can easily employ the method to successfully decrypt text.

Society today is exposed to these necessary skills early on in development. The idea of using logic to solve puzzles, riddles and other games is common starting at a very young age. What may have been considered a significant level of scholarship when cryptanalysis was first invented is now merely accounted for as common sense.

Early on in the history of cryptography people were not accustomed to the idea of codes and secret messages. This concept was so foreign that they could not begin to understand how to solve them or decrypt them. No one paid attention to what common letters were or which letters were most frequently used in their language. Today, with basic reading and common experiences such as watching word guessing game shows, people subconsciously take note of what letters most often appear in words. When an amateur cryptanalyst approaches an encrypted message they instinctively look to substitute in “e”, “t”, or “a” for example, knowing these letters form many common words. In the past, this knowledge was not considered basic knowledge and people were unaware of this crucial information. Armed with the knowledge of frequency analysis and the logical thinking our society breeds, amateur cryptanalysts can easily use frequency analysis without prior training.