I haven’t posted here in a while! I have been busy with school – had two math midterms two weeks apart! Fun!

I recently picked up a copy of Practical Cryptography by Niels Ferguson and Bruce Schneier. Excited to start reading! Cryptography, for those that don’t know, is essentially (as per the Google definition) the art of writing and solving codes. To put this in a more technical frame, cryptography refers to encryption – the process of converting ordinary information, plaintext, into gibberish, aka ciphertext. Decryption is the reverse process – translating that ciphertext into plaintext. We already have encryption everywhere in our daily lives, such as password protected internet connections, Facebook Messenger’s secret conversation option, and credit card transactions, for example.

I also signed up to volunteer for BSidesSF! That way, I can waive the $50 entrance fee. As a poor student, I can’t quite afford that, but I can volunteer! This will be my first BSides that I’ve attended since getting into security about a year ago.