Thurs. night seminar in W. Mass.: All About Alice (and Bob, Eve, and Oscar, too): The Research Culture of Cryptography

[Lewis McCarthy <lmccarth@cs.umass.edu>]

This talk by Jean-Francois Blanchette tomorrow (Thurs.) night may be of interest to 
those of you in the vicinity of western Massachusetts. Check www.hampshire.edu 
for a map and directions. 

Enjoy
-Lewis


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ISIS <isisGU@hamp.hampshire.edu> wrote:
 
 Seminar: All About Alice (and Bob, Eve, and Oscar, too):  The Research Culture of Cryptography
 
 Location: West Lecture Hall, Franklin Patterson Hall, Hampshire College,
 =>=>=>  Thursday, November 5, 7:30pm
 
 Modern cryptology researchers have been enthusiastically portrayed in the
 media as cyberspace's Freedom Fighters, and the fruit of their work, as
 tangible evidence that computers not only control, but can also liberate.
 In this seminar, we'll see how this simplistic picture of cryptological
 research shapes both the public perceptions of cryptology, and
 cryptologist's perceptions of themselves and their work.
 Jean-Francois Blanchette will discuss how the culture of secrecy and
 military intelligence has deeply informed the models cryptologists use to
 analyze and design security artifacts. He will also discuss how, from a
 initial concern with communication secrecy, cryptological research has
 dramatically expanded its scope to encompass digital signatures and
 certificates, watermarking, e-cash, copy-protection, and other domains.
 These are all artifacts of much broader cultural and societal import that
 can be fit under the analytical category of "privacy." Cryptologists, as
 well as the rest of us, have to imagine and invent richer and more complex
 representations of what cryptological research is about and what its
 object is, and to explore other social and ethical paradigms than those
 offered by privacy and confidentiality.
 Jean-Francois Blanchette is a graduate student in the Department of
 Science, Technology and Society at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.
 Trained as a cryptologist, he is now researching and writing about the
 practices, cultures, and ethics of cryptology.

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