We’re all outraged by the NSA’s invasions of privacy, sure — but we don’t perhaps understand exactly how it managed it. This video explains the maths behind the agency’s surveillance.
Hacking into email and working through encryption schemes requires some interesting maths, a lot of very large numbers, and a fair dollop of computer science savvy. In this video, perhaps the most handsome mathematician to grace the planet — Edward Frenkel from University of California, Berkeley — explains exactly how the NSA did it. All in a wonderful Russian accent. [YouTube]