Instructors: Richard Blahut and Iwan Duursma
Meeting: 9am MWF, 241 EL
Prerequisite: Math 401 or consent of the instructor
Text: Cryptography: Theory and Practice, D. R. Stinson, Second Edition, CRC Press; class handouts
The growth in electronic commerce offers the convenience of speed and accuracy, but presents serious problems of security. The possibility of eavesdropping and forgery demand clever safeguarding of information. Algebra and Number theory have acquired great practical importance since 1976 as a result of the development of public-key cryptography.
This course will be an introduction to cryptography, covering such topics as public-key versus private-key cryptography, one-time pads, RSA cryptosystems, factoring of large integers, as well as the most current (hyper) elliptic curve cryptosystems used today in business. The instructors will use their respective backgrounds in engineering and mathematics to teach both the theoretical and practical aspects of the subject. The course will begin at a level understandable to students of either department.
Instructs will each teach one hour per week. The third hour each week will present an opportunity for students taking the course to speak on a topic of their choice (each student doing this once as part of their grade) or for external speakers from academia or industry to address the class.