Wednesday, October 13, 2010

Bubble


I think many online buyers take for granted the fact that someone had to spend many hours at Amazon creating an encryption system to protect every single credit card number that moves through the system from potentially getting retrieved by hackers. The system that Amazon.com uses is called a public key encryption system and was created by several mathematicians, but the most fascinating thing about it to me is how simple it seems. The process of Amazon creating a "password " for your specific credit card transaction over the Web is so simple sounding, but it's so ingenious. Every time someone wants to make a transaction with Amazon, a special code is given so that when the customer enters their credit card number, a hacker can't get into the system and steal it. The password is only known and retrievable by Amazon, so there is no way for anyone other than the company to gain access to it. It definitely wasn't a simple process to create or implement, but the tiny little processes like these are just so fascinating to me. I have caught myself many times taking such processes for granted, but it's a video like this one that really boosts my level of awareness and appreciation for not only the effective use of public key encryption systems but for those smarty pants that created them in the first place. Way to go guys! Makes me want to be a mathematician!

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