by Prof. Vijay K. Bhargava, FRSC, FIEEE

DATE: Monday 7 June, 2010

TIME: 10h00 for 10h30 to 12h00, after which lunch will be served

VENUE: The Kerzner Building, Conference Room 1, Faculty of Art, Design and Architecture, Auckland Park Bunting Road Campus (click here for a map and directions)

COST: No cost, free-of-charge

There is no point in having information unless it can be communicated from one point to another point (telecommunications) or from one time to another time (storage). In both cases, protecting information from unauthorized access, modification and disruption is critical. Cryptography is a key technology in protecting information. It was traditionally concerned with maintaining confidentiality. Recently, there has been a dramatic growth in the applications of cryptography in other areas such as commerce.

Modern cryptography can be divided into symmetric-key cryptography and public-key cryptography. In this talk, some of the current symmetric-key and public-key cryptographic techniques used in achieving information security are outlined. These include the Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) which is the symmetric-key encryption standard adapted by the US government, and two well-known public-key cryptosystems, namely RSA (the initials of its inventors) and Elliptic Curve Cryptography (ECC).

The impact of information security upon society is then outlined. In particular, we focus on the usage of information security in Internet filtering. The Internet filtering can take place in different levels: local, organizational or national. In all these levels, the objective of filtering is to prevent or limit access to information/content that is against national/cultural values or is considered harmful for the users whether they are children or adults. Some of the current filtering techniques are outlined, as well as some of the circumventing methods to bypass it.

For catering purposes it is essential to register by latest 3 June 2010. For further information and regstration, please contact:

Monya Badenhorst, University of Johannesburg

Tel: 011 559-4743, Cell: 083 770 5902, Email: monyab@uj.ac.za

Categories: Events, Johannesburg, Security

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