Introduction to Modern Cryptography (IMC) is a 10 credit course at Level 11, normally taken in Year 4. It runs in Semester 2. The exam is in April/May, and is worth 70% of the course mark. The University descriptor is here.
Course Outline
The course is divided in two parts: private key and public key. Topics covered in the private key part are: classical ciphers (Caesar, Vigenere), one-time pad and perfect secrecy, computational secrecy, pseudorandom functions and permutations, CPA security, CCA security and proofs by reduction. The following topics are also briefly discussed: block ciphers, modes of operation, message integrity, hash functions and MACs. In the public key part we cover: hard computational problems such as factoring and discrete log, the Diffie-Hellman key exchange protocol, ElGamal and digital signatures. Other topics that may also be discussed (depending on time) are: zero-knowledge proofs, Schnorr Identification, commitment schemes and oblivious transfer protocols. A tentative outline of the material is given below.
- Digital Signatures - Trapdoor One-Way functions - Random oracles - Cyclic groups - The discrete logarithm/Diffie-Hellman assumptions - Key exchange and the Diffie-Hellman protocol - Public Key Encryption - Security against chosen-plaintext attacks - ElGamal Encryption - Zero-Knowledge proofs - The Schnorr identification scheme
Timetable
If you are looking for your class times for this course, these can be found via your University of Edinburgh calendar (links provided below):
