Movie fans might recognise the reference in the title. This is exactly how I feel having recently completed Cryptography module as part of MSc in Applied Cyber Security
It’s been a long time since I was in the world of academia. This was a baptism of fire. Over the course of 1 month, I had to go from zero to 100 m.p.h in cryptography as well as balancing work/personal life and the busy Christmas season!
I had a number of issues to overcome, the first and most challenging one was getting to grips with the mathematics. For the purists out there, you could say crypto is just prime numbers, and you’re right. I began to say it was just hard sums ! However, understanding the many different permutations of symmetric and asymmetric crypto is not for the faint-hearted when trying to calculate these without a nuclear-powered computer!
Another challenge was quickly learning to write academic reports in LaTeX format. The pre-cursor to that, of course, was checking out some books in the library. I felt truly embarassed that I had no idea how to actually check a book out of the university library. I rarely used the library as an undergrad – a degree in Music Technology didn’t necessitate such heinous activity! Thankfully, the librarians were sympathetic and incredibly helpful.
Now, don’t mistake my lack of library usage for lack of knowledge! I have completed a boatload of technical and professional courses since graduation in 2003 – I’m just not a pleasure reader!
Now that the module has completed, I’m proud to say that I got a distinction in the module.
So Crypto, you ain’t so bad!