Malicious Cryptography: Exposing Cryptovirology

Chapter 2

Cryptovirology

The digital realm is a truly magical one indeed. Where else can an object be conjured out of thin air, be teleported across vast distances, be duplicated in its exact form, be rendered invisible at the blink of an eye, and be cast back into oblivion?

Professor Matt Blaze bounded from one end of the chalkboard to the other scrawling the words “multilevel security” as he went. When he finished he turned to face the class and waited patiently as the students distributed the handouts to each other. He rubbed his eyes under his glasses and then glanced at his cell phone, the same cell phone that Customs gave him such a hard time about when he went on a trip to the Caribbean. Apparently it was suspected as being a high-tech encryption device, an article considered to be munitions under ITAR regulations. The fact that customs was suspicious is not surprising given the nature of his research. If you were a cryptographer you'd recognize him on sight for his contributions to the field, and if you weren't you would be certain due to his outward appearance that he could dismantle and reassemble a computer system at a glance. He just had that intelligent, computer-savvy look about him.

When I received my copy I looked at it and couldn't wait to read it. In the center of the page was a mug shot of the infamous hacker Kevin Mitnick. It was a clip from the morning paper, ...