Explore the critical role of prime numbers in internet security through this 29-minute conference talk. Delve into the inner workings of encryption, covering both symmetric and asymmetric methods, and discover why prime numbers are so challenging to crack. Learn to encrypt and decrypt data using only the Ruby standard library, demystifying HTTPS through code, color theory, and minimal mathematics. Gain insights into topics such as RSA history, implementation, key creation, encryption/decryption processes, and the potential vulnerabilities of RSA. Presented by Sun-Li Beatteay, a software engineer at DigitalOcean, this talk offers a comprehensive look at how prime numbers keep our online data secure.

Syllabus

Introduction
What are Prime Numbers
What are Encryption Functions
Symmetric Encryption
Asymmetric Encryption
RSA History
RSA Implementation
Selecting the Value
Creating the Private Key
Encryption
Encryption Decryption
Can RSA be broken
Prime factorization