Introduction to Cryptography

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

Fall semester 2009/10.

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:

• TBD

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	18/10/09	Introduction, Kerckhoff's principle, classic ciphers, perfect ciphers.	slides.
2	25/10/09	Perfect ciphers, pseudo-randomness, stream ciphers.	slides. A detailed proof of the security of the encryption scheme that was defined in the lecture. (The file is password protected. The password is the number of the room in which the lecture is held.)
3	1/11/09	Pseudo-rabdon generators. Stream ciphers. Modes of operationof block ciphers.	slides.
4	8/11/09	Block ciphers. Meet in the middle attacks.	slides. (Animation of Rijndael)
5	15/11/09	DES. Differential cryptanalysis. Message authentication.	slides.
6	22/11/09	Message authentication codes. Hash functions.	slides.

Homeworks: (must be submitted in pairs)

• Homework 1 (Question 3 revised on 8/11/2009)

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: November 21, 2009.