WHAT:  What might the ongoing struggle between safe crackers and safe builders have to do with the security of your e-mail?  

Find out this month at the Penn Science Cafe.   

WHO: Matthew Blaze, associate professor of computer and information science at Penn

WHERE:  The MarBar   

40th and Walnut streets, Philadelphia

WHEN:   6 p.m., Monday, June 27

     Doors open at 5:30 p.m.

     Menu items available for purchase

This month at the Penn Science Cafe, Dr. Matthew Blaze will explore how "human-scale" solutions to security problems are developed, how they succeed and fail and what information technology might learn from them.  

He'll focus on the simple, yet often ingenious, designs found in mechanical locks and safes, and we'll pay special attention to the escalating battle between safe crackers and safe builders throughout the last century

Perhaps not surprising, computer and network security researchers usually focus their attention on the security of computers and networks.  But, in fact, an overly narrow focus may be contributing to the very problems that we are aiming to solve.  Although much of information technology may be new, the underlying problems often predate the computer by decades or centuries, and the traditional, non-electronic security mechanisms that protect people, property and information are often much better than their computerized counterparts.

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