DFIRonline Crypto Presentation Reflection

First off, I want to thank Mike Wilkinson for asking me to present at the February 2012 DFIROnline videocast. The presentation topic was “A hands on (pen/paper) exercise in basic cryptology and cryptanalysis”. We had about 45 people in attendance. The session was interactive and my goal was to really help people appreciate the art of manual ciphertext decryption.

Kryptos – Discussed in the presentation – You can purchase your own here

In hindsight I wish I spent some more development time on this presentation. My current day job duties, spending time with my pregnant wife and training for a marathon left me with about 3 hours to prepare. I think the presentation went well, I just think I could have possibly made it a bit more animated. Cryptology is a very important skill for digital forensic / incident response practitioners to possess.

If you’re interested in viewing this video please view the below:

I did get some great feedback from one of the attendees pointing out some recently declassified documents from the National Security Agency relating to the “renowned mathematician Dr. John Nash wrote a series of letters to NSA in the 1950s proposing a new encryptiondecryption machine. Copies of his letters are on display at the National Cryptologic Museum.”

Here is a screenshot from the released documents.

Here is an abbreviated list of books to read if you’re still interested in cryptology 🙂

The Code Book

Codebreakers

Cryptanalysis 

Cryptography