Cryptography

This course introduces cryptography by addressing topics such as ciphers that were used before World War II, block cipher algorithms, the advanced encryption standard for a symmetric-key encryption adopted by the U.S. government, MD5 and SHA-1 hash functions, and the message authentication code. The course will focus on public key cryptography (as exemplified by the RSA algorithm), elliptic curves, the Diffie-Hellman key exchange, and the elliptic curve discrete logarithm problem. The course concludes with key exchange methods, study signature schemes, and discussion of public key infrastructure. Note: It is strongly recommended that the student complete an abstract algebra course (such as the Saylor Foundation’s MA231) before taking this course. This free course may be completed online at any time. See course site for detailed overview and learning outcomes. (Computer Science 409)