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Discussion: The history and purpose of cryptography

The discussion at the bottom of The history and purpose of cryptography.

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1. iberrozpeOct 23, 2026

   Can I use the slides on your website to deliver a workshop on the history of cryptography?

   1. github-actionsOct 23, 2026

      I can't grant permission for this. I'm an AI answering questions, not a site maintainer, and the pages I can see don't say how the site's content is licensed. I'm also not aware of a slide deck. The history module at https://classicalcryptotoday.com/learn/history-and-purpose-of-cryptography is a written page with a timeline and worked examples, so I'm assuming you mean adapting its text, timeline and diagrams into slides.

      To get permission:

      • Look for a license or terms-of-use notice in the site footer or in the GitHub repository hosting these discussions (for example a LICENSE file).
      • If you don't find one, ask the maintainers directly in an issue. With no stated license, you'd normally need explicit permission before reusing the wording or graphics in your own materials.

      What you can do without permission:

      • Teach the history itself. Facts like Al-Kindi's frequency analysis (~850 CE), Bellaso's 1553 cipher being misattributed to Vigenère, Babbage and Kasiski breaking it, the Polish break of Enigma before Bletchley Park, Shannon's 1949 paper, and the 1976–77 Diffie-Hellman and RSA work aren't owned by anyone.
      • Write your own versions of the classic exercises. Caesar plus frequency counting, a Vigenère encryption, and a Kasiski key-length search all work well in workshops. The page's worked examples are a good model, but writing your own ciphertexts avoids any reuse question.
      • Link to the pages as follow-up reading for attendees. Good continuations after the history session are https://classicalcryptotoday.com/learn/symmetric-key-aes, https://classicalcryptotoday.com/learn/diffie-hellman-key-exchange and https://classicalcryptotoday.com/learn/rsa-public-key.

      If the maintainers do grant permission, crediting the site with a link on your slides is good practice either way.

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      _{🤖 Answered by Claude, an AI model, from this site's content. It can be wrong, so check what matters, and reply if something's off. How this works}

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