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The first time I read this book was during my special relativity course at university. I couldn’t understand a thing the teacher was saying (probably because his explanations were always: “you won’t be able to understand that”) and I needed to replace a 35% grade I got in the first exam to complete the course.

Well, hopeless as I was, headed to the library in search of a magical book (other classmates were helpless as well) and found this one. The magic in it is that, instead of trying to force the Lorentz transformations down the throat first and then explain the basic principles of relativity, it does it by simply showing the topology of the space and assuming that the speed of light is constant (pretty much the same path Einstein took in the first place).

So, the first chapter has no equations whatsoever, only graphics with light waves going back and forth and he derives the light-cones automagically from it, what happens to the “world” at high speeds and how does it affect our senses of reality. It goes on for all kinematic principles only using Newton equations and gamma. Lorentz transformations only appear in the fourth chapter.

After that, not only I could understand relativity as a whole, but I also got 90% grade on the final exam! It’s an old (88) book but time has no meaning for a very good book, especially for a subject that hasn’t changed that much in the last decades.

I recommend it to physics-wannabe as well as lay people with little background in math, and if your teacher is as hopeless as mine was, ignore him and read this book.

Click here for the US version.

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Welcome to the August 12, 2007 edition of Information Security Carnival.

It’s amazing how wonderful submissions we have. We have tips, tools, articles, and even cartoons!

Jeremy Hitchcock sent us a great cartoon about Brain Spam… Can you imagine that?

Well, let’s go to our submissions:

articles

Noric Dilanchian presents Dilanchian Lawyers - Checklist of 51 hints for data and IT security posted at Lightbulb, saying, “Based on “the experience and wide reading of the lawyers at this law IT law firm, here is a list of 51 computer security problems and in each case a brief statement on solutions.”

“Amazing article, well-written, with tips for beginners and advanced Infosec Professionals.“

Jeremy Hitchcock presents WTTF: Welcome to the Future - Telepathy by AT&T posted at WTTF: Welcome to the Future, saying, “How hard it’ll be to secure our thoughts in the age of telepathy.”

“Hum… that’ll be my project… secure our brain waves…”

Infosec Group presents InfoSec - How to create a security policy posted at InfoSec.

“General tips to create a Security Policy.”

Falando pelos cotovelos presents Security Breaches posted at Falando pelos Cotovelos.

“Re-think your USB drives, flash drives, MP3 players and even your Digital Cameras’ memory cards.”

reviews

A Geek Family presents How to recover files deleted with Shift Del posted at A Geek Family.

“Yeah… Shift+Del is not the end of the world…”

tips

Slaptijack presents Username / Password Authentication in Cisco IOS posted at Slaptijack.

“Think security isn’t that hard. With a few steps you can improve your router security”.

techsack presents Fight spam while learning Linux posted at TechSack.com.

“Use Linux and improve your spam-filter capabilities”

SmallTownBS presents Yet Another Identity Theft Article posted at Small-town Big-shot, saying, “A highlight of social engineering and other hacking methods that hackers use to steal money and identity; in addition, ways to protect you from these things.”

“Hack your brain is still something for the future… but, right now, some people can stole you identity”.

Ted Reimers presents College Students and Identity Theft posted at CampusGrotto.

“Universities became a target for hackers. How can we protect our students?”

Geek Sisters presents Bluetooth and bluejacking posted at Geek Sisters.

“Nice explanation and video about bluejacking”

Your Hostess presents How to keep your Internet Life Browsing in a secure way posted at > systemcall dot org.

” Just a few tips about browsing.”

That concludes this edition. I want to say thank you for all those great articles, and please, keep your great work!

Submit your blog article to the next edition of information security carnival using our carnival submission form.
Past posts and future hosts can be found on our blog carnival index page.

Technorati tags:

information security carnival, blog carnival.

Popularity: 22% [?]

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It’s quite difficult to write a book in cryptography today and not talk about RSA, DSA, keys and the internet. Some make the effort to write about a bit of history, information theory and the arcane cryptosystems, but so far I’ve only found small references just for the sake of having it.

If you don’t understand the basics, the advanced may sound right, but faint. If you don’t have a hands-on experience with the basic technics, you’ll never get quite right the more advanced stuff, that’s why I strongly recommend this book. It was written in the sixties with the intent to describe basic cryptanalysis that was already obsolete at that time, specially after the WWII when cryptanalysis was boosted to a new level.

The book always explain the concepts by examples. Every chapter have a encrypted text that needs decryption and then the author goes on through the theory and practice of solving it. As the theory is worked out together with the practice you won’t loose any important concept, what always happens in mathematical texts (minimal theory, one useless example and lots of exercises).

It’s organized in five parts, one for each basic cryptosystem: direct standard alphabet (caesar cipher, rot13), generic monoalphabetic substitution (linear transformations), polyalphabetic substitution, polygraphic systems (matrices) and transpositions. All of which are, somehow still used in advanced cryptography, so the knowledge of how it used to work in plain text will definitely give you important clues on how to understand even the Rijndael (a.k.a. AES) algorithm.

I’m also building a tool kit to help me checkpoint my work throughout the book.

You can find the book at Amazon UK following clicking in the picture:

For Amazon US and International, follow this link: Elementary Cryptanalysis: A Mathematical Approach

Popularity: 5% [?]

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