Announcement
- <2021-01-04 Tue> Week 1 lectures will be delivered in Zoom.
- <2021-12-13 Mon> Course page is up and running! Stay tuned~
About
- Syllabus: PDF.
- Lectures: Tu/Th 14:00 - 15:50 @ KMC (Karl Miller Center) 480.
- Instructor: Fang Song (fsong
“AT” pdx.edu). Office hours: W, 13:00 - 14:30 @ Zoom (See link in Slack and Google Calendar).
- Teaching assistant: Nikhil Pappu (nikpappu “AT”
pdx.edu). Office hours: M/F, 10 - 11:30 @ Zoom (See link in Slack and Google Calendar).
- Google classroom: join with code oxwi523.
- Overview: Cryptography is usually described as the art of
secret writing. The revolution of modern cryptography, however, has
been transforming cryptography into a science based on a
mathematically rigorous framework. Beyong the significance in
protecting information in our society, modern cryptography is also
full of intellectual and mathematical beauty. This course will explore
the key concepts in modern cryptography, including private-key
cryptography such as perfect secrecy, block ciphers, crytographic hash
functions and message authentication, as well as public-key
cryptography such as public-key encryption and digital signatures. We
will also touch on some emerging topics such as the threats and
opportunities quantum computing brings in cryptography. Our approch
will be conceptual and theoretical: the focus is on the ideas rather
than implementations, and on how to define and reason about security
of cryptographic constructions in a mathematically sound manner. The
ultimate goal will be to build a cryptographic way of thinking.
- Prerequisite: CS 350 or equivalent. It is crucial that you are
comfortable with (preferably enjoy) reading and writing mathematical
proofs. It’s helpful if you are familiar with (randomized) algorithms,
basic probability theory and linear algebra. I will review some of the
basics in class, but the terms “big-O notation, randome variables,
expectation, matrices and eigenvalue” for example should not be
totally alien to you. If you are uncertain about your background
please don’t hesitate to talk with me. Programming skills are not
required for this course.
- Required Text: Introduction to Modern
Cryptography
(3rd edition) by Jonathan
Katz and Yehuda
Lindell. Chapman
and Hall/CRC, Dec. 2020. On course reserve at PSU libary.
link.
- Useful materials: see the
RESOURCE page.