Computer Science Seminar Series
Cryptography: From Enigma to Elliptical Curve Cryptography
4:00 p.m. Monday, February 16, 2009
Weir Hall, Room 235
Donald Costello
Distinguished ACM Speaker
Department of Computer Science
University of Nebraska
Lincoln, NE
Abstract:
The history of cryptography can be likened to a reawaking history of
mathematics and computer science. The story of cryptography goes back
4000 years and some of the mathematics employed goes back as long. This
talk will address the history of cryptography beginning with the Enigma
used by the Germans in WWII and broken by world famous Mathematician/
Computer Scientist Alan Turing. It will continue down to today's
advanced crypto systems such as RSA, PGP and Elliptic Curve
cryptography.
The lecture will point out the key role that cryptography plays in the
future of e-commerce and the new products and ways of doing business
that results when secure communications through cryptography is
available.
Biography:
Don Costello has had a mixed career splitting his time between
Universities and Business. He helped start three Computer Science
Departments and three University Information Technology facilities
(University of Nebraska, University of Wisconsin . Oshkosh and Madison
and Colorado State University). He has taught undergraduate and graduate
courses and has done work in research areas of Statistical Computing,
Performance Modeling, Standards for Learning Objects and Managing
Intellectual Property. He is a 40-year member of ACM and is a fellow of
the British Computing Society. He has lectured all over the United
States as well as in England, Ireland, Austria, Germany, India and Sri
Lanka. He also held a four-year Carnegie Foundation grant to investigate
how IP is managed in Universities around the World.
In business career he has managed IT facilities, founded and sold two
firms and consulted with over 100 firms throughout the world. His recent
consulting includes five years consulting on ERP systems, SAP, as well
as being a Technical Consultant on .com and e-Learning projects.
Don currently holds a position as a Senior Lecturer and NCITE scholar at
the University of Nebraska and is working on the importance of standards
in modeling the large systems needed to support e-learning environments