2.1-2.2 and 2.4, due September 11

• The hardest part about this section of the reading was to understand the attacks on the different cryptosystems. I had to read through each a couple of times before I began to understand. I also had to go back to Chapter 1 to re-read the descriptions of the different attacks.
• The best part of this reading for me was to actually follow through the decryption of the section of the Declaration of Independence. At first I looked at the ciphertext and had no idea what to make of it. When the textbook began to walk me through it, the real message started to come out. It was really cool to begin to see the process.