The Espionage

Trinity: Morpheus believes he is the one.
Cypher: Do you?
Trinity: It doesn’t matter what I believe.
Cypher: You don’t, do you?
Trinity: Did you hear that?
Cypher: Hear what?
Trinity: Are you sure this line is clean?
Cypher: Yeah, of course I’m sure.
Trinity: I better go.

Are you sure this line is clean? What line? What does that even mean? Let’s use The Matrix to further define identity systems.

Remember our definition of identity? An identity is the perception of an entity by a witness within the context of space time. When Trinity asks Cipher if the line is clean in the beginning of The Matrix, she is really asking Cipher if there are any unwanted witnesses. Have you ever excused yourself from the room because of a cell phone conversation? Why did you do that? You did that because the secrets exchanged in the conversation were to be shielded from unwanted witnesses. This is privacy. Security is the shield for doing so. In this case, what shield is used? Simply space time. Relocating puts unwanted witnesses out of earshot. The shield is not always that simple.

Internet transactions generally rely on the Secure Sockets Layer (or SSL) to exchange secrets. SSL depends on encryption for its shield. Data is encrypted on the origin computer by a key. The encrypted message is then sent over the channel. The destination decrypts the message by the same key. This is how the internet shields its private messages.

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Tags: Identity, matrix, privacy, Security, shield, SSL

This entry was posted on Wednesday, March 12th, 2008 at 8:12 am and is filed under Identity, Security, Spyshakers. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.