RIP on The Today programme

[Wendy Grossman]

In-Reply-To: <iYotxSAKPEx4Ew0Z@swarb.freeuk.com>
> In message <p0431010cb4e923f034c4@[10.0.0.1]>, Fearghas McKay
> <fm@espace.net> wrote:
> >Caspar has just appeared on Radio 4's Today programme in the last 
> slot of
> >the programme.
> >
> >Unfortunatly they ran out of time but he got a couple of minutes:-(
> 
> It is never long enough. We need a one minute explanation of Public 
> Key
> cryptography. Any offers?
> 
> 
> -- 
> David Swarbrick, Solicitor 01484 722531 - david@swarb.freeuk.com 


I usually say something like:  public key cryptography depends on a 
complementary pair of keys, one public, one private.  The public key you 
disseminate widely, and anyone who wants to can use it to scramble a 
message so that only you can read it -- your private key is the only key 
that can decrypt it.  And vice versa, so that if you encrypt a message 
with your private key anyone using your public key to decrypt it knows 
it came from you.  Giving police access to your private key, therefore, 
has more consequences than just giving them access to all your past 
encrypted data (though this is also true); it also opens the way for 
anyone seizing a copy of your key to impersonate you.

Is that scary enough?

wg