How to explain modern security concepts to your children

Abstract

At the main cryptography conference CRYPTO in 1989, Quisquater et al. published a paper showing how to explain the complex notion of zeroknowledge proof in a simpler way that children can understand. In the same line of work, we present simple and intuitive explanations of various modern security concepts and technologies, including symmetric encryption, public key encryption, homomorphic encryption, intruder models (CPA, CCA1, CCA2) and security properties (OW, IND, NM). The explanations given in this paper may also serve in demystifying such complex security notions for non-expert adults.

Making Encryption Feel Secure: Investigating how Descriptions of Encryption Impact Perceived Security

“…How security concepts such as encryption should be communicated to users remains an ongoing debate. Bultel and colleagues [6] proposed various ways of teaching security concepts including various encryption modes to children or non-expert adults in an understandable manner. However, in many contexts, it is not always realistic to include full explanations of the details of encryption protocols to users who want to achieve their primary goal, unrelated to encryption.…”