[LRUG] [COURSES] Cryptopals Study Group

[Najaf Ali]

Hi Rubyistas,

If you don't already know the Matasano Crypto Challenges
<http://cryptopals.com/> are now publicly available online. Do them and I
guarantee you'll be as miserable about applied cryptography as I am by the
end of set three!

If you're a fairly new programmer or just can't manage to set aside time to
work on the challenges it can be difficult to make progress on them. I
think it would be fun to do a semi-regular study group to work through them
together.

Here's what I have in mind:

*Time*

First one next Wednesday 20th from 19:00 - 22:00 (though you're free to
turn up earlier/leave later). Depending on turnout I'm thinking of doing
them every two weeks after that.

*Venue*

Online. We just jump into a gitchat room and work through the challenges.

*Format*

I don't think there's any reason for all of us to be in lockstep, working
through them at your own pace is fine. The chat room will be there so you
can compare notes, give each other hints, commiserate when ideas you had
fail and celebrate when they go well. I'm limiting it to twenty so it's not
too crowded, but if demand goes over that we can split into a few groups
next time.

I'm going to be starting the challenges from scratch in Golang (just
because I've forgotten some of the details of how the attacks work and need
to recap before I can continue, and I want to learn a bit of Golang).
You're free to do them in whatever language you like, the challenges are
totally language-agnostic. Be warned though that I come out with a massive
rash whenever there's a JVM running in my mental vicinity.

*Who's it for?*

Anyone who'd like a little camaraderie while working through the crypto
challenges is welcome to attend. *If you're a relatively new developer who
isn't sure where to even begin with crypto or worried that you may not have
enough knowledge to do the challenges, I would like you in particular to
attend.* If no one else does, I will personally walk you through all the
tricksy byte-level manipulations that you'll need to clear the first few
sets.

*Fee*

I'm charging a £5 fee just to get a firm commitment from people that
they'll actually show up to the session. I will match it, round up to the
next hundred and donate the result to Eaves
<http://www.eavesforwomen.org.uk/>.

*Registration*

Click here to register
<https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/cryptopals-study-group-tickets-12633441965>

I've checked with one of the authors (tptacek) on twitter and seem to have
his blessing <https://twitter.com/tqbf/status/499294599970840576> to run
this. As mentioned before, if there's demand and the sessions are actually
useful I'd be happy to run this regularly, so if you can't make this
particular date then email me to register interest.

Cheers,

-Ali

*P.S. Can't make it or find the the £5 fee a little too steep? Do the
challenges anyway <http://cryptopals.com/>. They will teach you tons about
operations on binary data, encodings and number theory, even a bit of
crypto too. They're the type of puzzles you get stuck on for hours, only to
have the solution come together in your head three days later while walking
the dog. "About the most fun I've ever had with a computer" is common
feedback.*
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