From Julius Caesar to Provenzano: the use of encryption systems as a historical constant
Privacy on the Internet
Privacy is a fundamental right and inalienable individual. Therefore as masters of our deeds and our thoughts have the right to hold it for us, considering the public only when we give explicit consent.
Despite legal protections, the natural instinct of man is in any case to protect themselves especially when it comes to surfing the Internet since the use of the network involves risks that are not always visible. Then obtain the tools to defend against those who want to illegally into our private space is quite a natural and not new, but quite old with origins dating back to before Christ with the scytale ladecemonica or the cipher Caesar , the latter one of the oldest of which has been recorded.
Software to protect
Nowadays security is a very strong concern linked to the spread of the networks. It is known that the effectiveness of internet has on people as media used to influence, communicate, disseminate information, as well as space for business. So do not be surprised by the interest in exploiting the wiretapping as a tool to control users, both as a strategy to increase the benefits from advertising with the knowledge of consumer habits, or, at worst, for possible blackmail. This fact inevitably encourages individuals attackers to invade land prohibited. Faced with these threats and other tools such as Tor and encryption system gpg , two software to ensure anonymity in the network, are seen as the panacea to the matter which concerns us. The
gpg is an encryption system that lets you send and receive messages via e-mail messages so protecting from possible intruders. It allows you to encrypt and decrypt the files, but above all to sign, and then certifying that were created by a particular person.
Each encryption system also has an unfavorable side for the general safety, because it is also used by terrorist organizations, from gangs Mafia and other groups to evade a possible surveillance of the authorities. An example of this occurred in the story of Bernardo Provenzano , to protect important information in its written pizzini applied a coding system based on the Caesar cipher.
That said, security is not guaranteed only for the use of encrypted messages, which at worst can be decrypted. What do we do then? This is where our aid is involved in the Tor software which allows you to surf the Internet safely without leaving a trace. The software hijacks communications on specific routes so as not to allow an analysis of our traffic, preventing others to see which sites we visited, to learn about our geographical position and to obtain information about our habits and our interests.
Beyond the borders, the complaint: how to fight it?
But the free use of the Internet that allows us to Tor is guaranteed even in countries where there is the free dissemination of opinions, and indeed there is a continuing as political censorship in Tunisia or in the case of China or Iran. Online censorship is to prevent users from reaching certain parts of the Internet or block all viewing certain sites. For this there is a need for technological tools to deal with censorship in some countries abroad. With the Tor software, the user is able to fool the filters designed with a system. It is known that during the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing, journalists have used this software for free access to information censored.
Carlos Fuentes wrote: " there is no freedom except in the pursuit of freedom, and this research is that which makes us free" . From this sentence it is clear that freedom consists in intelligence able to tackle the obstacles that prevent us from realizing and protecting it. The systems mentioned before are the result of this intelligence.
Carolina López Montero
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