Ruhr-Uni-Bochum

CASA Comic: Whitfield on the Traces of Cryptography

Second CASA comic takes readers on a fascinating journey through the research of Research Hub A of the Cluster of Excellence CASA.

Gruppenfoto zu CASA Comic von Hub A

Contributors to the comic: Gregor Leander, Eike Kiltz and Peter Schwabe (from left). Missing on the picture: Jörg Schwenk and Christian Mainka. Copyright: CASA, Katja Marquard

Cover des CASA Comics A

Copyright: CASA

A long, cold winter hits the inhabitants of the foxhole on stomach and mind: Fox Whitfield longs for a snack and for the eternal boredom to finally come to an end. But fortunately there is suddenly this tempting smell of cookies that seems to come from the mountains. Whitfield follows the trail and ends up in the middle of an exciting adventure that holds more than just delicious cookies in store for the young fox.

Thus begins the story of fox Whitfield, the protagonist of the second science comic from our Cluster of Excellence CASA. On their journey through Research Hub A, the readers learn together with Whitfield about the research priorities and challenges that the scientists in the field of "Future Cryptography" deal with on a daily basis. They learn about backdoors and their dangers, how post-quantum cryptography will secure our data in the future, and what an onion has to do with privacy security. Various research projects are presented, along with real-life stories and a CASA wiki that explains technical terms in more detail.

"The Secrets of Hub A and the Traces of the Cookies" is the second comic in the series, which introduces readers to the Cluster of Excellence's research in an unusual way. "We use cryptography every day, mostly without realizing it: whether it's paying by credit card, sending a WhatsApp message, or simply surfing the web. We hope that the comic will introduce our readers* to some of the most exciting developments in this field of research," says Peter Schwabe, one of the contributors to this comic. Eike Kiltz, CASA spokesperson and also a contributor, adds, "This includes, for example, CASA's success in the NIST global standardization process on post-quantum cryptography last year."

All comics are published in English and require an initial, prior technical knowledge. They are made available both digitally and as print editions to interested readers.

Take a look at our comics!

If you are interested in a print edition, please contact us at hgi-presse(at)rub.de!

General note: In case of using gender-assigning attributes we include all those who consider themselves in this gender regardless of their own biological sex.