CS 4830 - Introduction to Cryptography

(SMR-AS)

Spring. 3 credits. Letter grades only.

Prerequisite: CS 4820. Note: This is a theory course. You will be expected to read and write formal definitions and mathematical proofs. This is not a course in security: you will not learn how to design secure systems. Instead, you will learn some of the (beautiful) mathematics that forms one component of secure systems. Co-meets with CS 5830.

N. Stephens-Davidowitz.

A rigorous introduction to the theoretical foundations of the cryptography that powers much of the modern world. Topics include one-way functions, secret-key encryption, zero-knowledge proofs, signatures, public-key encryption etc. As this is a theoretical class, the emphasis will be on formal definitions and proofs.