A talk to be held for students entering their 5th and 6th year will be held on Wednesday 16 June at the Western Infirmary Lecture Theatre. The talk, taken by Simon Peyton of Microsoft, will explore how "Crytopraphy" can prevent fraud on the internet.

What actually happens when you log onto Amazon.com, type a password, enter your credit card number, and press "confirm"? How do you know that you are talking to Amazon? How do you know that someone else can't impersonate you? Can an eavesdropper get your credit card details? Cryptography, providing ways to encode a message, so that others cannot read it, or impersonate the sender is the solution.

Be prepared to be informed, entertained, and astounded.

For further details please contact Jon Ritchie on 0141 330-6854 or email:jon@dcs.gla.ac.uk.

Media Relations Office (media@gla.ac.uk)

First published: 15 June 2004