In this film, as part of a series of web exclusives, Bang Goes the Theory's resident chin scratcher, Dr Yan Wong explores how 'Public Key Encryption' changed the way we share sensitive information online.

If this whets your appetite and you want to get 'hands on' with science, why not join the team at a Bang LIVE roadshow? Watch the presenters as they test, stretch and explode science in the action packed live stage show, and take part in experiments and pick up science tricks in the Bang interactive area.

For more details and to find out where Bang are going to be in 2012 go to the Bang site.

Learn more about internet security and how you can protect yourself online with our WebWise guides.

Brett is a Content Producer for BBC WebWise, and has been creating web content for the BBC for ten years. He loves fine ale and vintage wine, cathedrals, music of all genres and classic British comedy, and has a huge collection of rare vinyl records

We have all worked very hard to give the course the thorough makeover it deserves, and even a quick look will reveal that the site has a radical bold new look. In fact it is almost unrecognisable from the previous version of the course which went live way back in 2004. It never ceases to amaze me just how fast online content can look dated, especially when, like WebWise it deals with cutting edge technology and how best to use it. Seven years isn't that long a time, or so I keep telling myself, but in terms of technology it is an absolute age.

I have worked on many BBC sites before, including that favourite of 16 year old children everywhere, GCSE Bitesize. The nature of the knowledge being imparted to learners there is very different. Set texts may be added or removed from reading lists and various historical eras may fall out of favour, but by and large the topics that need to be learnt will not vary very much from year to year. With anything vaguely computer-related though, it is often difficult to keep up with the pace of change.

The old course made no reference to social media or to mobile phones for instance, whereas in our marvellous new offering they form a very important, integral part of the course. It's hard to imagine an IT certificate being award these days with making mention of those two now ubiquitous areas of technology!

It's not just the content that has changed since 2004 though. The site looks radically different and is much brighter and clearer to use. What has also changed is what technology allows us to do. You will find clear, easy-to-follow video and animation used throughout the site that copies how mobile phones and internet browsers work. Even a very basic computer user should be able to follow the courses we offer and gain confidence in their abilities.

The march of progress has also allowed us to add many new and exciting features to help adult learners make the most of modern technology. Take for instance the progress bars. If you register with the WebWise site, every time you log in subsequently, even if you switch computers, the site will remember how much of the course you have completed and will save your status every time you complete a module. You don't even have to take the modules in order so it is easy to flit between online safety topics and those covering emails. It's a great new feature and will I hope much improve the user experience.

But enough of me, the course is all about the learners. Please have a look through the site and let us know what you think.

The modems available, such as the Prism VTX 5000, were fairly rudimentary with data travelling back and forth at around 1200 baud (a paltry 1.20 Kbps in modern terms), and the wondrous glories of the World Wide Web were still some years away. But connect you could, via the Micronet 800 service to the Post Office's Prestel system, a very early online portal.

And then, in 1983, along came Hollywood starlets Matthew Broderick and Ally Sheedy and changed the world forever. Not a phrase you hear every day admittedly, but the film War Games brought to mass attention the phenomenon of 'hacking'. In an instant the modem was no  longer a friendly piece of gadgetry that allowed computer users to connect with others all around the world and discuss the latest Duran Duran single. It was suddenly a sinister instrument of intrigue and subterfuge that, with a few random taps from a geeky teenager at a keyboard, could launch a thousand nuclear missiles towards Russia and ensure the end of the world within a matter of hours.

Thirty years on and hacking is still a dirty word, but what exactly does it now mean? Hacking is essentially the illegal and unsolicited accessing of computers and other devices. Motivations for doing this vary. While profiting from hacking is certainly possible, many groups of hackers such as LulzSec or Anonymous tend to use their nefarious skills to protest and make information public that organisations would rather remain secret.

Hackers seem to make the headlines more than ever these days, and we are now aware that even our own mobile phones can be successfully broken into and 'hacked' for information. But not even the newspapers responsible for hacking are immune from attacks, as a recent story about the Sun's website demonstrated.

So is there such a thing as a 'good hacker'? Well, yes, as in addition to horse-riding, the term 'hacker' is also used to refer to amateur tech enthusiasts who spend their time modifying and rebuilding various old and redundant technologies in order to make new devices. So if attacking electrical circuits with a soldering iron in the confines of a shed or fiddling with flashing LEDs and resistors is your thing, then don't be surprised if your harmless hobby sees you labelled a hacker too. In a nice way.

Brett is a Content Producer for BBC WebWise, and has been creating web content for the BBC for ten years. He loves fine ale and vintage wine, cathedrals, music of all genres and classic British comedy, and has a huge collection of rare vinyl records, only some of which are terrible.

At the time though, what impressed me the most as a 1980s schoolchild was the way that the BBC were able to mobilise the British public to create a resource like the original that would provide testimony of a moment in time for countless millennia to come. And all for no reward other than being a part of history.

A lot of the project relied on schoolchildren to gather and submit information. As Maggie Philbin pointed out in her recent blog about the Domesday project this means that a lot of fascinating minutiae has been recorded that probably would have remained unremarked upon by adults with other priorities.

Nowadays, this kind of mass participation to create a shared resource would be called 'user generated content'. It is of course nothing new: the UK's Mass Observation project pioneered such collaborations in the late 1930s, but now it is a lot easier for you to become involved in similar schemes and share your thoughts and observations with others.

Many news reports rely on user generated content for their images and video.  The popularity of mobile phones and digital cameras mean that there is a vast army of potential reporters ready and waiting whenever a story breaks. In countries and areas where the BBC has little or no official access, such as Syria, it may be the only way that news will reach the outside world. When stories such as this are broadcast now, the newsreaders will often implore viewers to send in content that they may have as a matter of routine.

But it's not just mass protests and grim natural disasters where the BBC needs your help - take the BBC's two landmark nature series Springwatch and Autumnwatch for example. While Kate Humble and Chris Packham do a sterling job anchoring everything from their cosy BBC standard-issue shed, the programme relies heavily on viewers interacting with the team to create compelling content. On the Springwatch site you are positively encouraged to join in by sharing your nature pictures on the programme's Flickr group (take a look at our glossary to find out more about Flickr) and upload your videos of wildlife to the BBC site.

No longer are nature programmes the kind of dry documentaries where knowledgeable animal experts relate complex facts in a hoarse whisper to an attentive well behaved audience. These days your contribution to Springwatch is every bit as important as that of all those experts on remote islands being dive-bombed by enraged gannets.
 
As the name Domesday Reloaded implies, the BBC needs your help once more. A series of programmes are planned for later in the year and again the British public are being urged to interact with the BBC and send in their photographs, stories and comments. You can download activity packs from the Domesday site which will help you find the sort of information and details that the BBC are looking for in your local area and start collecting information to share.

And no, you won't be paid for your time, but just imagine your humble contribution being pored over by generations of BBC viewers hundreds of years from now. Exciting, isn't it?

Brett is a Content Producer for BBC WebWise, and has been creating web content for the BBC for ten years. He loves fine ale and vintage wine, cathedrals, music of all genres and classic British comedy, and has a huge collection of rare vinyl records.

UPDATE: The Domesday Reloaded project has now ended, and is no longer accepting submissions. You can, however, still peruse the data to your pleasure.

But, as the recent Record Store Day proved, there is still an active market for physical forms of music and there are a lot of independent music stores around the country with knowledgeable staff dedicated to selling music in a tangible physical form.

It surprises me how many people confess to still having large stacks of old vinyl albums lying around, collected in their youth when the latest release from their favourite band was a momentous occasion, before the demands of adulthood and responsibility took their toll. Too sentimentally attached to their record collection to bin it and with no means of playing it, the records live suspended in limbo, the dusty vinyl grooves lie idle, and their formerly much-loved music remains unheard.

With their record decks long since consigned to either a recess in the attic or the bottom of a skip with equally unwanted VHS players and cassette players, how are these poor people ever to listen the tracks that they grew up with?

Unlike their lost youth though, all that classic music does not have to remain lost. Normally the people I talk to who are lamenting their unplayed vinyl will have MP3 players of some description and will be comfortable with transferring music to and from their computer’s hard drive. So what can they do? The answer is surprisingly simple and seems to fall out of my weekly TV listings magazine every time I open it, in the form of all those leaflets and brochures that someone so diligently sticks in there ever week. Before you throw them straight into the recycling it’s probably worth having a look through them, because almost inevitably somewhere in there will be a device for transferring your beloved vinyl and cassette tapes onto your computer’s hard drive or directly onto a CD.

A lot of the machines will be large chunky devices in tasteful retro-style pine cabinets, but if you don’t want your children to mock you or friends to shake their heads in despair at your woeful interior design skills then there are a number of stylish vinyl turntables out there for sale which will manage the job of transferring music to your computer without a piece of varnished wood to be seen.

The process is relatively easy and pain-free even for the most timid technophobe. Normally, a standard USB connection plays the music into a software program such as the free-to-download editors Audacity and Cool Edit, which will record the music and then allow you to chop the sound into single tracks and save it to your computer’s hard drive.

MP3 files are the most popular sound files as they compress audio into smaller sized files allowing you to keep the precious memory space on your hard drive and music player uncluttered and free for yet more music. They also play out on most modern music systems, though you can also save them in other popular formats such as Windows Media or WAV. WAV files (short for Waveform) are uncompressed sound files and will take up much more room on your system.

So there you are, it really is as easy as that; plug, play and away you go. Take the plunge, buy an MP3 turntable and bring life back to your record collection. You now officially have no excuse to neglect the music that defined your life. The fun I have had experiencing music I haven’t heard in decades is worth every penny I spent.

Brett is a Content Producer for BBC WebWise, and has been creating web content for the BBC for ten years. He loves fine ale and vintage wine, cathedrals, music of all genres and classic British comedy, and has a huge collection of rare vinyl records.

For more information on audio editing, have a look at BBC Bitesize's guide to audio software.