Announcements

First lecture on Wednesday, January 8, 2014.
Regarding weather, see note on Piazza after setting up an account.
No discussion sections or office hours held this first wintery week.

There are presently no open seats. Wait listed students must attend discussion and submit homework on-time in order to be considered if other students drop.

This course introduces students to the foundations of modern cryptography and the humility of building practical cryptographic systems. The assignments will involve a blend of theory, critical thinking via essay writing, and problem solving via programming. The class will draw on material from number theory, public key cryptography, digital signatures, hash functions, symmetric cryptography, key distribution, cryptographic protocols, homomorphic encryption, theoretical notions of security, and cryptographic attacks. Highlights include RSA, El Gamal, arbitrary precision arithmetic, Montgomery multiplication, elliptic curves.

Emphasizes rigorous mathematical study in terms of algorithmic complexity. Includes necessary background from algorithms, probability, number theory, and algebra. Students are expected to have mastered concepts from EECS 280 (Programming and Data Structures) and EECS 203 (Discrete Math).