Talk:Cryptography

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Give an overview of cryptography standards: at least, what they are and some important examples. Wikilink to a few of the most popular protocols, e.g., Secure Sockets Layer in the "Cryptographic protocols" section.
Priority 1 (top)

• /archive1 - February-May 2004
• /archive2 - Aug 2004-March 2006
• /archive3 - March 2006-June 2006
• /archive4 - June 2006-December 2006

[edit] Engineering vs. Malevolence

It says in the article "Cryptography is also a branch of engineering, but an unusual one as it deals with active, intelligent, and malevolent opposition (see cryptographic engineering and security engineering); all other kinds of engineering need deal only with neutral natural forces." I'd argue that there are other fields which have to deal with malevolent forces. What about constructing structures and vehicles which withstand attack? Or designing weapons which to deal with the defenses? Or even designing defenses specifically from the weapons (radar jamming, etc)?

Daemon 16:43, 19 January 2007 (UTC)

Personally, I don't really buy that Cryptography is a branch of engineering. Security engineering is, I suppose, but that's a related field, not the same thing. Mangojuice^talk 18:13, 19 January 2007 (UTC)

Crypto uses experimental evidence and experience, folk wisdom, joint experience of many, mathematical proof, scientific theories, etc to develop systems and procedures and so on. This is a pretty good description of engineering, not of a science. Seems a reasonable chocie of term to me. ww 11:10, 9 March 2007 (UTC)

[edit] removal of reading to links section

Several of these are in fact actual books, and should not have been moved. The others are less easily classified and may belong in a links section. These should be reviewed. There is, in this group, no easy way to automatically classify them. The test should be size, formality, perhaps existence as a dead tree production, nad importance to the field. ww 11:10, 9 March 2007 (UTC)