Note: Students who took the course CS 4953 Special Topics: Cryptography (Spring 2002) may not enroll in CS 4363.

Lectures, Assignments, and Exams.

• An overview of lecture topics, lab assignments, lab quizzes, and exams.

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 three books with images above are recommended texts. Each is available online in PDF format as a local copy. Click on each image for more information about the book. You are not allowed to print a copy of any of these books, especially not at UTSA. (The copyright holders do not allow printing any of the books. The printed copy will not do you much good and will waste a lot of paper. You may make electronic copies for your own use.)

• Here is a list of current technical books in cryptography: list of books.

• In addition to the three online books above, here are online resources about cryptography.

Students in the Course:   Class Roster (Census Date): .text, .pdf, .ps, Student groups: .text.

Requirements and Grading:

• Mid-term exam: 20%, Final Exam: 30%.
• Homeword (written and programming): <= 20%.
• Project: <= 30%.
• Attendence: <= 5%.

Programming:

• Language: Programming should be in Java, or failing that, in C++, but not in C. If you program in C++, it should be real C++ and not just C with a few simple C++ features. (You must have more than C programming experience when you enter the job market.)

• Teams: Some simple programming assignments will be done individually, but there will be a main project that can be done by a team. Teams can be formed by 1, 2, or 3 students, but under no circumstances more than 3. (Four or more students can just break into several teams.)

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.

Demonstration of Random Number Distributions:

• Here.
• Java source file.

Previous Versions of the Course:

• Spring 2002.

Mid-term Examination (Review , Answers): Wednesday, 12 March 2003

Final Examination (Review, Answers) : Wednesday, 7 May 2003, 8:00 - 10:15 am