Introduction to Cryptography

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Instructor: Benny Pinkas, benny (at) pinkas.net.

Spring semester 2011.

Description:

This course is an introduction to the basic theory and practice of cryptographic techniques. We will cover topics such as encryption (secret-key and public-key), digital signatures, secure authentication, secret sharing, and cryptographic protocols.

Prerequisites:

Probability theory, Linear Algebra, Number Theory, "Mathematical Maturity".

Grading: Final exam (75%), Homework (25%)

Reading:

1. (Recommended) Textbook: Introduction to Modern Cryptography, J. Katz and Y. Lindell.
2. Textbook: Cryptography Theory and Practice, Second edition by D. Stinson.
3. מבוא לקריפטוגרפיה : מדריך למידה לספר  Cryptography: theory and practice / תמיר טסה
4. Optional (Free!): Handbook of Applied Cryptography, by A. Menezes, P. Van Oorschot, S. Vanstone. 
5. Optional (Free!): Introduction to Cryptography Applied to Secure Communication and Commerce, by Amir Herzberg.
6. Optional: Applied Cryptography, by B. Schneier.

הערה לגבי השקפים: החומר המחייב למבחן הינו החומר המועבר בכיתה ולא החומר שנמצא בשקפים. יתכן וסטודנט אשר יסתמך על השקפים בלבד יתקשה לפתור את המבחן.

Course Plan:

Lecture	Date	Subject	Files
1	20/2/2011	Introduction, Kerckhoff's principle, classic ciphers, perfect ciphers.	slides.
2	27/2/2011	Perfect ciphers, pseudo-randomness, stream ciphers.	slides (updated on March 6). A detailed proof of the security of the encryption scheme that was defined in the lecture. (The file is password protected. Ask me for the password.)
3	6/3/2011	Stream ciphers, pseudo-random functions, block ciphers.	slides (updated on March 7).
4	13/3/2011	Block ciphers, differential cryptanalysis.	slides.
5	27/3/2011	Message authentication codes.	slides.
6	3/4/2011	Public key cryptograhy. Background in number theory.	slides.
7	10/4/2011	Diffie Helman key exchange.	slides.
8	1/5/2011	El Gamal encryption. RSA encryption.	slides.
9	15/5/2011	RSA encryption. Digital signatures.	slides.
10	22/5/2011	Digital signatures. Cerificates.	slides.
11	29/5/2011	Cerificate revocation. Number theoretic algorithms.	slides.
12	5/6/2011	Number theoretic algorithms. Secret sharing.	slides.
13	12/6/2011	advanced topics.	slides.

Homeworks:

1. homework 1.
2. homework 2.
3. homework 3.

Sample exams:

1. exam 1.
2. exam 2.
3. moed aleph exam.

A sample of other crypto courses on the web (with slides or lecture notes available online):

(in no particular order)

• Eli Biham's course at the Technion.
• Amos Fiat's course in Tel Aviv University.
• Amir Herzberg's course in Bar Ilan University.
• Yehuda Lindell's course in Bar Ilan University.
• David Wagner's course in Berkeley.
• Salil Vadhan's course in Harvard.
• Mihir Bellare's course in UCSD.

Last updated: August 29, 2011.