Secure internet communications might not be as secure as we think, according to the BT Young Scientist of the year 2007. His winning project is an attempt to crack the most hacker-proof encryption system in the world, writes Dick Ahlstrom, Science Editor.
Abdusalam Abubakar (16) last night received the top prize in the annual Young Scientist event, taking away a cheque for €5,000. His complex maths project impressed the judges who described as "remarkable" his command and insight into cutting-edge mathematics.
His undoubted success won't be appreciated by those charged with keeping bank details, secure communication lines and internet commerce safe. The third-year student from Synge Street CBS, in Dublin, decided to try and break the mathematical safeguards thrown up to protect sensitive data.
The goal is not to acquire access to ill-gotten gains. Finding new ways to break codes helps to make them more secure by closing off weak points and chinks in the security armour.
Abdusalam is one of the "new Irish", coming here two years ago from Somalia via Kenya. He expressed complete surprise at having won the event, which included 500 research projects completed by more than 1,100 students.
"It was great, unbelievable. I didn't think I was going to win anything. I didn't want to be optimistic," he told The Irish Times last night. Abdusalam, whose name translates into "man of peace", based his initial work on partially successful attacks on the world's most widely-used encryption system, RSA, mounted by two mathematicians. He decided to take the best aspects of both and generalise a new approach, which he believes has the potential to tackle at least some less complex coding systems.
Three students from Maynooth Post Primary School, Co Kildare, Timothy Seebus, Justin Cullinane and Ben Finnegan, won the best group project award. The runner-up individual award went to Ciara Murphy from Beara Community School, Co Cork.