Codemakers versus Codebreakers: Who Wins?

Wednesday 16th May 2007, 6:30 pm

Speaker: Professor Fred Piper, Information Security Group, Royal Holloway (University of London)

Venue: The Royal Scots Club Hepburn Suite, 30 Abercromby Place, Edinburgh EH3 6QE - map and direction.

This talk is free of charge and no reservation is required. Non members are most welcome. Refreshments available from 6:00 pm.

This meeting will be preceded by the BCS Edinburgh Branch Annual General Meeting at 6:15 pm

Synopsis

The last few decades have seen Cryptography transformed from being a black art to a popular science.

After a brief introduction to the subject we will give a history of cryptography to see how and why this has happened. (This will, of course, include the massive influence of computers!) We will also look at the political and business impacts and do a little crystal ball gazing.

About the speaker

 

Professor Fred Piper (BSc PhD(London) CEng CMath FIEE ARCS DIC FIMA) has been a Professor of Mathematics at the University of London since 1975 and has worked in security since 1979. In 1985 he formed a company, Codes & Ciphers Ltd., which offers consultancy advice in all aspects of information security. He has acted as a consultant to over 50 companies including a number of financial institutions and major industrial companies in the UK, Europe and USA. The consultancy work has been varied and has included algorithm design and analysis, work on EFTPOS and ATM networks, data systems, security audits, risk analysis and the formulation of security policies. He has lectured world-wide on information security, both academically and commercially, has published a number of cryptographic papers, and is joint author of Cipher Systems (1982), one of the first books to be published on the subject of protection of communications, Secure Speech Communications (1985) and Cryptography: A very short introduction (2002). He was a member of ITSAG, the DTI's Information Technology Advisory Group from 1989 - 1991. From 1992 to 1995 he was a member of ITSSQC, the advisory committee to DTI on IT Standards, Security and Quality. He is currently a member of the Foresight Crime Prevention Panel: IT, Electronics and Communications Task Force, a member of the DTI Management of Information for Fraud Control, Security and Privacy Link Programme, and a member of the Scientific Council of the Smith Institute. He is a member of the Board of Trustees for Bletchley Park. In 2002 he was awarded an IMA gold medal for "services to mathematics" and received an honorary CISSP for "leadership in Information Security". In 2003 he received an honorary CISM for "globally recognised leadership" and "contribution to the Information Security Profession".