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CS 4953, Spring 2002: Cryptography
MWF 10:00-10:50 am, BB 3.03.02
>>>Note room change:
from HSS to BB 3.03.02<<<
Syllabus
Assignments:
Instructor:
Neal R. Wagner
- Office: 3.02.16 SB.
- Phone: (210)458-5550.
Description:
-
(Formal) A course in pure and applied cryptography, with emphasis on
theory. Topics include conventional and public-key
cryptosystems, signatures, pseudo-random sequences, hash functions,
key management, and threshold schemes.
- (Informal) The term "cryptography" refers to secret codes
that can make a message unintelligible except to the intended
receiver. Such codes have been used
for thousands of years, mainly by the military. In the past 25 years
the needs and capabilities of the computer revolution have led to
a flowering of the field of cryptography, with many new codes
and techniques now available.
Textbooks and Reference Books:
- The six books with images above are recommended texts.
The first book (Handbook of Applied Cryptography) is the primary
recommendation.
Click on each image for more information about the book.
- Here is a list of current technical books in cryptography:
list of books.
Online Resources:
Impossible compression claims:
Students in the Course
Requirements:
- Mid-term exam: 20%, Final Exam: 30%.
- Homeword (written and programming): 30%.
- Project: 20%.
Prerequisites:
CS 3343 or Consent of Instructor
- The course CS 3343 (Analysis of Algorithms) is the
main important prerequisite, since much of the course deals
with cryptographic algorithms.
- This is a technical and theoretical course, intended for
computer science majors.
I will try to keep the mathematics from getting too hard,
but students who actively dislike mathematics should not enroll
for this course.
Course Project:
Outline of Topics (tentative):
- Overview of Cryptography
- Preliminaries: Mathematics, Information Theory, Number Theory
- Historic Methods of Encryption
- Modern Methods of Encryption in Conventional Cryptography
- Public-Key Cryptography
- Pseudorandom Bits and Sequences
- Stream Ciphers
- Block Ciphers
- Hash Functions and Data Integrity
- Identification and Authentication
- Digital Signatures
- Key Management
- Threshold Schemes
Lectures on
``The Laws of Cryptography'':
Mid-term
Examination
(Review,
Answers):
Wednesday, 20 March 2002
Final Examination:
Wednesday, 8 May 2002, 8:00 am - 10:15 am
Revision date: 2002-05-10.
(Please use
ISO 8601, the International Standard.)