CMSC 456 CRYPTOLOGY

Overview

Cryptology is the study of the design and analysis of various encryption schemes, and related topics. The plan is to study the basics of the subject and then touch on several recent developments.

Grading:

There will be Homework, one midterm, and one final. There might be a paper or small project.

Text:

The text will be Introduction to Crytography by Wade Trappe and Larry Washington

Prerequisite

Either (1) Two 400-level math courses or (2) CMSC 251 and two 400-level computer science courses, or (3) Permission of the instructor.

Topics

  1. Construction and analysis of simple cryptosystems (affine, Vigenere, linear feedback shift registers)
  2. Public key cryptography (RSA, finding large primes, factoring techniques)
  3. Secret sharing schemes (design a system that can be activated by any 5 people in a group, but never by 4)
  4. Signature schemes (how to sign an electronic message)
  5. Key distribution
  6. Identification schemes (identify yourself in a way that eavesdroppers cannot later pretend to be you)
  7. Zero-knowledge techniques (prove that you have some information without revealing the information)
  8. Information theory
  9. Miscellany (Quantum methods, Elliptic curves, Private information retrieval, Connections to Complexity theory, flipping coins and playing poker over the telephone; yes, you can do it and still prevent cheating)