
I've been reading this board passively for a while now and find the
subject absolutely fascinating, especially from the point of view of
a civil rights nut like myself.  My problem is that I'm new to the field
and paragraphs like the above keep popping up.  I'm sure what Mr. 
Bellovin is writing about is both fascinating and important, but I have 
NO IDEA what it means.  :-)   
  
  Anyway I'm keen to learn and will read anything I can get my hands on
that explains this stuff in lay terms (I have a decent CS background, but
not a huge amount of hyper-advanced math).  Can anyone point me to a FAQ
or a decent source of information about the guts of current cryptography and
maybe a little history as well?  I read the piece in this month's WIRED, can
anyone tell me how much I should trust the references they suggest?

  Thanks in advance,
   Steve.
