Rutgers University   MAT 640:348 - Cryptography
 Home
 Course Info
 Syllabus
  Course Syllabus

Readings are assigned from:
Hoffstein, Pipher, and Silverman: An introduction to Mathematical Cryptography
Here is a useful page for doing large integer computations:
http://www.wolframalpha.com/

Assignments will be posted one week in advance of their due date, so make sure you press Ctrl-R to reload!

WEEK LECTURE TOPICS READING HOMEWORK
Week 1
01/20, 01/23
Introduction
Shift/substitution ciphers, frequency analysis
1.1-1.2, 1.6 1.1, 1.3, 1.4(a,b), 1.6
Due 1/30
Read about: Atbash
Al-Kindi
Mary, Queen of Scots
Zimmermann Telegram
News from a few days ago
Week 2
01/27, 01/30
SNOW DAY 1/27
Division algorithm
Euclidean algorithm
Polynomial running time
1.2 1.7, 1.8, 1.9, 1.10 1.11
Due 2/03
Week 3
02/03, 02/06
2/06: QUIZ
Modular arithmetic,
Prime numbers, unique factorization
Fermat's Little Theorem
1.3-1.4 1.11, 1.14, 1.15(c,d), 1.16(a,c,g), 1.17(c,d,e),
1.19, 1.20, 1.25(a), 1.28(c), 1.29(a)
Read about: Fermat's Last Theorem
Andrew Wiles
News from a few days ago
Due 2/10
Week 4
02/10, 02/13
Powers and primitive roots
Discrete log, Diffie-Hellman
1.5,1.7, 2.1-2.3 1.30(a,b), 1.31, 1.32(a,c(i,ii),d), 1.33, 1.34(b(i-iii),c,d),
1.41, 1.42(a), 1.44(a,b), 1.48
Write out the power table mod 11.
How many numbers have order 10? 5? 2?
How does this compare to Gauss's theorem?

Read about: P vs NP
Arthur Scherbius
Hans-Thilo Schmidt
Marian Rejewski
Alan Turing
News from a few days ago
Due 2/17
Week 5
02/17, 02/20

Extra Office Hours:
Wed 2/18, 2-3
Fri 2/20, 2-3
Mon 2/23, 1-2
Public key, asymmetric ciphers,
one-way functions, Diffie-Hellman
2.1-2.3 2.1 (write just one paragraph, and only for the side with which you agree),
2.3, 2.4(a,b), 2.5, 2.6
Watch:
Rutgers Hack-a-thon
Read about: The original Diffie-Hellman paper
James Ellis
Malcolm Williamson
PGP
Phil Zimmermann
News from a few days ago
News from a few days ago

Due 2/20
Week 6
02/24, 02/27
2/24: MIDTERM 1
ElGamal, collision
2.4-2.7 2.8(a-c), 2.9, 2.17(a)
Read: News from a few days ago
Due 3/03
Week 7
03/03, 03/06

Chinese remainder, Pohlig-Hellman
Quadratic residues
2.8-2.9 2.18(a,d,e), 2.19, 2.20 (note that `x=a+cn' should be 'x=a+cm'),
2.21, 2.23(a,c), 2.24(a,b,c,e), 2.28(a)
Read about: Sun Tzu
The Art of War
Sophie Germain and her Primes
The mathematician Sun Tzu,
not to be confused (as in class) with the military theorist above
Due 3/10
Week 8
03/10, 03/13
RSA
Man-in-the-middle attacks
Pollard p-1
3.1-3.3, 3.5 Note: You may now use Wolfram Alpha to compute
modular powers but NOT to factor integers
3.1(a,b,c) (Hint: 97 and 541 are prime, and 1159=19x61),
3.3, 3.4, 3.5(a,b(i-ii)) (Hint: 77 divides 1463),
3.6, 3.8 (a,b), 3.9 (a,b,c), 3.11, 3.12, 3.21
Read about: The original RSA paper
Clifford Cocks
RSA patent
fun RSA video
News from a few days ago
Kryptos Competition
Due 3/24
Week 9
03/17, 03/20
SPRING BREAK
Week 10
03/24, 03/27

Extra Office Hours:
Wed 3/25, 3:15-4:45
in 425 Hill
3/27: QUIZ
Primality testing
Factorization via difference of squares
Relation building with Smooth numbers
3.4, 3.6 3.13(a,b(i-ii)), 3.14(a,b,c - should be n = 294439),
3.23(a,b), 3.24(a,b), 3.25(a,b), and
Problem (see 3.9/3.15): Alice publishes her RSA modulus
N=38749709 and the encryption exponent e=10988423.
An oracle gives you the decryption exponent d=16784693.
Factor N.
Read about: The Riemann Hypothesis
Mathematica file from class (Right click to Save As)
and the corresponding pdf file
Due 3/31
Week 11
03/31, 04/03

Extra Office Hours:
Thurs 4/02, 3:30-4:30 pm
in 542 Hill
Index calculus and discrete logs
REVIEW
3.8 3.35, and
Hand in corrections to all mistakes from
Quiz 2 and all homeworks since Midterm 1
Here is the Mathematica file from class (Right click to Save As)
and the corresponding pdf file
Due 4/03
Week 12
04/07, 04/10

Extra Office Hours:
Mon 4/06, 3-5 pm
in 705 Hill
4/7: MIDTERM 2
Birthday ``paradox''
Collision attacks
4.4 4.26(a-d), 4.34(a-b), 4.35(a), and
Hand in corrections to Midterm 2
Read about: Johnny Carson
Birthday Paradox
News from a few days ago
Due 4/14
Week 13
04/14, 04/17
Meet-in-the-middle
Pollard rho
Vigenere cipher
Kasiki attack
Index of coincidence
4.2, 4.5 4.38, 4.39, 4.10, 4.11, 4.15(a), 4.16, 4.17
Extra credit: 4.18
Extra credit 2: Solve the "Cheryl Birthday" Paradox

Read about: Leon Alberti
Charles Babbage
Friedrich Kasiski
Civil war Vigenere
William Friedman
News from a few days ago
News from a few days ago
News from a few days ago
Mathematica file from class
Due 4/21
Week 14
04/21, 04/24
4/24: QUIZ
Elliptic Curves
Elliptic Curve Cryptography
5.1-5.5 5.1, 5.2, 5.3, 5.4(a,d), 5.5(a,b), 5.6(a), 5.8, 5.10(a), 5.13(a,b)
Read about: The Congruent Number Problem
News from a few days ago
Mathematica file from class
Due 4/28
Week 15
04/28, 05/01
REVIEW 1.1-5.5 A special presentation
Week 16
05/06
REVIEW SESSION
Wed May 6
11 am - 2 pm
Hill 124
Mathematica file for Elliptic Curve Pollard Rho
and the corresponding PDF file
Mathematica file for Pollard Rho Factoring
and the corresponding PDF file
You might find this interesting
You might find this interesting
You might find this interesting
News from today
Week 17
05/13:
FINAL EXAM: 5/13, 8 - 11 am