Discuss AY Honor Cryptography Answer Key

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< Talk:AY HonorsTalk:AY Honors/Cryptography/Answer Key
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This looks like a cool honor. If the NAD decides to adopt it (or maybe have an advanced version) I think it should touch on these topics:

  • symmetric/asymmetric cryptography keys
    • A symmetric key uses a single key to both encrypt and decrypt. Also called a shared key.
    • An asymmetric key system uses one key to encrypt and a different one to decrypt. Once a message is encrypted, the encryption key cannot be used to decrypt it.
  • public/private keys
    • A form of asymmetric keys where one key is secret and the other is public. The public key can be used to encrypt a message that only the holder of the private key can decrypt. This is how end-to-end encrypted messaging systems work.
  • Digital signatures
    • A message can be signed by encrypting a message with a private key. Anyone can decrypt it using the public key. The message could only have been encrypted by the one holding the private key (thus proving it came from that entity). This is basically the same as the end-to-end encryption as described above, except the public and private keys switch roles. It forms the basis of blockchain (i.e., Bitcoin).
  • Diffie Hillman exchange
    • A way for two parties to create a secret key that they can share by combining their private keys over a public medium without actually exchanging or revealing their private keys, and without an eavesdropper being able to reconstruct the resultant secret shared key. Once they have a private shared key they can switch to symmetric cryptography which is way faster than asymmetric crypto. This is how https works.


So apparently renaming pages does not transfer over Talk pages. Or maybe I missed something when renaming.
I think your ideas would be great additions to the honor. I linked the YouTube video in the References section; however, that got me thinking. Should I just include the video instead of linking to it? And if we decide to go that route, should we include instructional videos for other honors? I found an excellent page that has been keeping up with the e-honors, but I'm sure other instructional videos exist. Would it be advantageous to include the instructional video at the end of the page for such honors?
My only fear is that instructors would come to the Wiki looking for help to teach, but instead, once they see the video at the end, would just show kids the video instead of actually teaching. --w126jep (talk) 21:08, 27 April 2020 (EDT)
My vision for videos is to embed several in an honor, but each video should try to teach only one requirement. I think that would remove the temptation to show a video and award an honor since there would be several videos to go through. I also don't have a problem with kids learning everything they need to know to earn an honor without an instructor. They would still need to demonstrate their skills to an instructor (or better, teach the honor to their club) and they'd still need to complete whatever activities the honor calls for. --Jomegat (talk) 18:32, 28 April 2020 (EDT)