Reading 1.1-1.2 and 3.1

The hardest part of this section for me to understand was the piece about public key algorithms.  It is hard for me to understand what exactly it is that Bob knows that lets him decrypt the message when everyone has access to the message and the key.  I am still having a hard time seeing how this would solve the problem anyways because Bob needs extra information given to him somehow to be able to decipher the message.

The most interesting parts of this section were the real world applications of plaintext attacks in World War II.  It was interesting, (and a little scary) to see how using a little logic and a few interceptions that the Allies could become aware of entire encryption keys and all the while the German outpost never even realized they were feeding information to their enemies.  And to think that that one little slip could have such large ramifications.  It was also interesting to read about how the more that cryptography develops the more information we are willing to let Eve see.