Logistics
Instructor: Prabhanjan Ananth
Time: Mondays and Wednesdays, 2pm to 3:15pm
Location: 1930 Buchanan Hall
Office Hours: Mondays and Wednesdays, 3:15pm to 3:45pm
First Lecture: September 27, 2021
Teaching Assistants: Fatih Kaleoglu
Announcements will be made on Piazza/Slack. The link to the discussion forums will be made available to students registered in the course. You can also get the link if you attend the first lecture: please don't email the instructor/TAs for the link before the first lecture. Please note that the mask mandate is in place: it is mandatory to wear masks during the lectures.
Course Information
Course Description: In this course, we will learn how two parties can securely communicate with one another without leaking information to an eavesdropper. We will also study mechanisms that enable parties to authenticate their data.
Course Prerequisites: Discrete mathematics (CS 40). Being comfortable with reading or writing proofs is a plus.
Course Evaluation (tentative): 3 to 4 assignments (40%), 1 midterm (30%) and a final project (30%). The assignments will be a combination of programming assignments and writing proofs.
Course Materials: We will roughly follow material from the book by Jonathan Katz and Yehuda Lindell. However, you can follow the course even if you don't have the book as long as you attend the lectures. Useful online materials available for free:
Tentative Course Schedule
Part I: Private-key Encryption Schemes
(This is estimated to take about 4 weeks.)
Relevant chapters in Katz-Lindell: Chapters 1,2,3 and 7.
Part II: Hash Functions
(This is estimated to take about 2 weeks.)
Relevant chapters in Katz-Lindell: Chapter 5.
Part III: Public-Key Encryption Schemes
(This is estimated to take about 3 weeks.)
Relevant chapters in Katz-Lindell: Chapters 8, 10 and, 11.
Part IV: Digital signatures
(This is estimated to take about 1 week.)
Relevant chapters in Katz-Lindell: Chapter 12.