How Secure Is Your Online Information?

Almost everything you do today uses a code. Everytime you log onto an internet service like Twitter or Facebook and send your password…everytime you log into internet banking…all of that information is protected using encryption code. – PBS NOVA – Rise of the Hackers

50 Minute Video from PBS Nova provided below.

Prime numbers. Remember that from grade Four math class. If you don’t, follow this link. – Prime Number on Wiki

In fourth grader lingo, it’s a number that is divisible by itself and the number one. Hence the multiplication of two prime numbers, produces what we call a semi-prime. A quasi prime that is divisible by one and the numbers that produced it.

The greatest threat to the world today is the keyboard. – PBS NOVA – Rise of the Hackers

For the sake of the prime number argument, one of the largest prime numbers discovered contains 17 Million digits. Yeah, but what does all the “prime” talk have to do with breaking the internet ?

This system of public and private keys is known as the RSA algorithm…without the ability to form these connections, internet banking, social media, stock trading….all the things we take for granted online, fundamentally wouldn’t work. – PBS NOVA – Rise of the Hackers

Math has been at the forefront of computing in every way shape or form since its inception. Ones and Zeros and any combinatory logic form of either or both creates code and computer language. So, the unique characteristics of prime numbers are used by advanced developers of online security systems that keep our banking, credit card, online transactions and most treasured personal information secure from the peering eyes of hackers around the world. Or so they say.

Now, computer hacking is rising to a whole other level. A new generation of cyber weapons aren’t just for stealing your credit cards, but are designed for mass destruction. Targeting factories, water supplies, power grids, and now they’re on the loose. – PBS NOVA – Rise of the Hackers

As one correspondent in the video documentary said it, “It’s like unfrying an egg, easy one way, hard the other way.” The only way to figure out the two primes that created the secure semi-prime is through trial and error and combinatory logic. LOTS OF IT. Imagine trying to figure out which two primes (up to 17 million digits each) created the sub-prime that protects your banking information. Almost impossible.

Hackers have stolen millions of credit card numbers from big companies like Target and Bank of America…and broken into social media accounts. Even this pales in comparison to what the big boys can do. – PBS NOVA – Rise of the Hackers

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Enter Quantum Physics. The documentary describes in very simple terms how quantum physics computing could either move to keep protecting our privacy, or if out in the hands of the perpetrators, destroy the internet. The main issue with the advances in quantum computing is the vast amounts of heat thermodynamics it produces. The cooling requirements are still too vast to provide any plausible solution at scale.

…a quantum, or qubit, uses the features of quantum physics that means that things can be in two places at once. It can be a zero AND a one. – PBS NOVA – Rise of the Hackers

After viewing this fascinating documentary on PBS NOVA, Rise of The Hackers, I was intrigued and wanted to share with you how the internet is breaking and how quantum physicists could make or break its future. The 50 minute documentary is fun for the math averse too.

It goes on to show how the USA created Stuxnet. An advanced computer virus that was created to target the Iranian uranium movement. The cause that could be used to develop nuclear weapons of mass destruction that may target the Western World.

Everytime Stuxnet infected a new computer it would start hunting for PLCs, devices that control machines. When they (Symantec engineers) discovered where Stuxnet was spying, things took a more sinister turn. – PBS NOVA – Rise of the Hackers

Much to dismay of Microsoft and the world, a solely engineer from the Natanz nuclear facility plugged in a USB key, and then took it to his home computer, bascially spreading a computer virus that was meant to hack into Siemens industrial centrifuges in Iran.

The documentary from PBS tells a fascinating story of our digital environment in a language that anyone can understand. It goes into detail without getting boring or cryptically scientific. Captivating at every turn with new features and quotes from experts on how cyber warfare is already well on its way.

Right now we are in the grip of a new arms race. On one side the code makers and scientists, defenders of our digital lives. On the other side the hackers are becoming ever more devious. – PBS NOVA – Rise of the Hackers

Enjoy the Show.

Thanks for reading. Comments, ideas, and speculation welcome.