The Mathematics of Public-Key Cryptography
last modified December 5, 2000
This home page contains information about the
course C&O 685, The Mathematics of Public-Key Cryptography.
This course is being taught in the Fall Semester, 2000,
by
Doug Stinson.
Crypto News
- On October 2, 2000, Rijndael was selected as
the new Advanced Encryption Standard, replacing
DES. For details, click
here.
For more information about Rijndael,
click here.
- Read about the solution to the
cipher challenge from Simon Singh's ``The Code Book'':
click here.
The solution to the tenth and last stage
required factoring a 512-bit RSA modulus, and was
completed by a group of five Swedish researchers
on October 5, 2000.
- A 150 year old cryptosystem, known as the
"Edgar Allan Poe Cryptographic Challenge",
has finally been solved: click
here.
Course Information
- class time and location: 11:30 - 1:00 TR, DWE 1501
- instructor: D. R. Stinson
- office: MC 4028
- telephone: (519)-888-4567 ext. 5590
- office hours: I am usually available for consultation any time
I am in my office; you can see me with or without an appointment.
If you wish to make an appointment with me, please send
email to the address at the end of this web page.
- course grade: the course grade will be determined as follows:
- assignments (about 5 or 6) 30%
- midterm 20%
- exam 50%
Textbook
The course textbook is
Cryptography: Theory and Practice.
Other reference material can be found in
the Handbook of Applied Cryptography.
This book can be downloaded free from the WWW: click
here.
Course Outline
A course outline, in postscript, is found here.
Midterm and Final Exam
Lecture Summaries
Assignments
Notes (in postscript, unless otherwise noted)
dstinson@uwaterloo.ca