Analogy is the key
People take a shot of midday coffee. Ashok takes a puzzle.
A few days ago he called: “Zaki, if you are going to lock your documents in a box with a padlock and get a boy to take it to your lawyer, how will he open it if you never send the key?”
The answer is quite interesting...
Isn’t that beautiful?
Even better, this is the best ever analogy I have heard for explaining something called ‘asymmetric public key encryption’.
The Internet uses many additions to and variations of this basic solution when it securely carries your passwords and credit card numbers.
In the past, I have tried to explain public key encryption to numb executives but failed dramatically.
That was because instead of using such an analogy I jumped into “prime number theory” and dwelt extra time on “the assumed difficulty in arriving at the prime factors of a large number”. And of course, how all these prime number properties go into building public and private keys :-(
Now thanks to Ashok’s riddle I should be able to explain asymmetrical encryption in a snap. What a brilliant way to explain a brilliant idea.
A few days ago he called: “Zaki, if you are going to lock your documents in a box with a padlock and get a boy to take it to your lawyer, how will he open it if you never send the key?”
The answer is quite interesting...
- The lawyer puts his own padlock on top of your padlock, retains his key, and sends the box back to you.
- You now, use your key to unlock your original padlock and once again send the box back to the lawyer with his lock still on it.
- This time the box has only the lawyer’s lock on it and the lawyer opens it with his own key.
- No key was ever sent out by either the sender or the receiver. Nevertheless, the contents of the box were accessible to the sender.
Isn’t that beautiful?
Even better, this is the best ever analogy I have heard for explaining something called ‘asymmetric public key encryption’.
The Internet uses many additions to and variations of this basic solution when it securely carries your passwords and credit card numbers.
In the past, I have tried to explain public key encryption to numb executives but failed dramatically.
That was because instead of using such an analogy I jumped into “prime number theory” and dwelt extra time on “the assumed difficulty in arriving at the prime factors of a large number”. And of course, how all these prime number properties go into building public and private keys :-(
Now thanks to Ashok’s riddle I should be able to explain asymmetrical encryption in a snap. What a brilliant way to explain a brilliant idea.
posted by Zaki at 2:58 pm
3 Comments:
By the way, I read it in Outlook.
Ashok
in the light of your brilliance, sir, india will ride into greatness. as for the esteemed mr. ashok, his contribution to india's future glory will not be forgotten. when you are made president, sir, he will be awarded the role of prime minister.
Great analogy!
Make your blogs little less esoteric.
This was the only post which I could relate to.
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