ICSI-526/426 Cryptography

Spring 2016

Announcements · Course Objectives · Evaluation · Lectures Notes · Project · Assignments · Recommended Study Material Academic Integrity Policy

Instructor: Pradeep K. Atrey
Office: LI 096C
Class Meeting Time: Tuesdays, Thursdays 11:45 a.m. - 1:05 p.m.
Class Room: HU137
Office Hours: Tuesdays, Thursdays 2:00 - 4:00 p.m. and By appointment
Email: first letter of first name plus last name at albany dot edu

Teaching Assistants:
Ashish Agarwala (for both 526 & 426), Email:aagarwala at albany dot edu, Office hours: Monday and Wednesday 11am - 1pm. (in LI95E).
Rudresh G. Patel (for 426), Email: rpatel2 at albany dot edu, Office hours: Monday and Wednesday 11am - 1pm. (in LI95E)..

Announcements

May 1, 2016:

Lecture 9 material has been posted.

Course Objectives and Learning Outcomes

The making of ciphers to encode information is the subject of cryptography. This course covers the field from its origins in early historic times through its most up-to-date implementations and uses in digital computers. Various ciphers will be shown and their security assessed. This latter is known as cryptoanalysis - the attempt to break cipher in order to read the underlying message. The course will emphasize how cryptography and cryptoanalysis are intimately related, and how the arms race between the two has motivated progress throughout their history.
Prerequisites: Strong progamming skill.

Evaluation Criteria

You are free to choose any of these two options.

Option 1:

Better of two tests (20%)
Best three out of four assignments (30%)
Final exam (50%)

Better of two tests (20%)
Best three out of four assignments (20%)
Project (20%)
Final exam (40%)

Option 2:

Three tests (20+20+20 = 60%)
Four assignments (40%)
NO FINAL EXAM

Three tests (15+15+15 = 45%)
Four assignments (35%)
Project (20%)
NO FINAL EXAM

Option 3:

Best two out of three tests (35%)
Best three out of four assignments (30%)
Final exam (35%)

Option 4:

Best two out of three tests (30%)
Four assignments (40%)
Final exam (30%)

The evaluation weights may change, if needed.

Lecture Notes

Topics	Reading List
Introduction to the Course
Classical cryptography	R1.2, Univ. of Rhodes Island - Notes
Modern block ciphers (DES) and modes of operation, AES	R1.3, R1.5 (except 5.1, 5.6), R1.6 (except 6.7) Univ. of Rhodes Island - Notes
Basic concepts in number theory and finite fields	R1.4 (except 4.4), R1.8.4
Public key cryptography 1 (RSA)	R1.8 & R1.9
Public key cryptography 2 (D-H key exchange algorithm, El Gamal's cryptosystem, Elliptic Curve cryptography)	R1.10, Web link
Public Key Cryptography 3 (Message authentication, hash functions and digital signature schemes)	R1.11, R1.12 (except 12.6, 12.7, 12.8), R1.13 (except 13.2, 13.3)
Shamir's Secret Sharing (SSS)	R2.13, Board scraps
SSS and Homomorphism 1	Please see UA blackboard for Board Scraps
SSS and Homomorphism 2 (Application to large-scale cloud-based multimedia data processing)	-
Pseudorandom number generation and stream ciphers	R1.7
Multimedia Security	Web link

Project

Final project submission: due on May 6, 2016, 11:59 p.m.
Project proposal: due on Feb. 4, 2016, 11:59 p.m. The topics of potential projects can be found here.
Sample final reports can be found here: [Implementation] and [Survey]
Approved projects can be found here.

Assignments

Assignment #1 (Classical cryptography): due on February 18, 2016, 11:59 p.m.
Assignment #2 (Image encryption using AES): due on March 10, 2016, 11:59 p.m.
Assignment #3 (Image steganography): due on April 7, 2016, 11:59 p.m.
Assignment #4 (Shamir's Secret Sharing and Homomorphism): due on April 30, 2016, 11:59 p.m.

Academic Integrity Policy

Students must maintain standards of academic integrity. Please click here for details on related policies.

Recommended Study Material

Reference Books
R.1: Cryptography and Network Security: Principles and Practice, 6/E William Stallings
R.2: Cryptography: Theory and Practice, Third Edition Douglas R. Stinson
R.3: Introduction to Cryptography with Coding Theory, 2/E

Besides the information contained in these books, the appropriate material and examples will also be taken from other sources. Students are responsible for all material covered in the class.