CSC 290 Introduction to Cryptology




An unsolved code. Two sides of the phaistos disk

Information

Course: CSC 290 Introduction to Cryptoplogy
Instructor: Randal C. Nelson
TA: David Ahn,
Office hours Monday 2:00-3:00, Thursday 11:30-12:30, CSC 620. Time: TR 2:00 - 3:15
Room: CSB 601

Summary

This course is a one-semester introduction to cryptology, covering material from classic ciphers to modern encryption methods, along with some history.

Topics

Prerequisites

The course contains considerable mathematical content, though an in-depth treatment of the mathematics behind modern cryptology is beyond its scope. If you do not like math courses, you will probably not like this course. As a prerequisite, you should have at least calculus and basic linear algebra. Material from probability and number theory will be introduced. There will be a number of cryptoanalytic exercises, so you should like working on word puzzles. Many of them will require use of a computer, so you should enjoy writing programs, and have taken a data structures course (e.g. CSC172).

Course Text Books

The required texts are Other useful books

Grading

Cryptanalysis projects and problem sets final project and presentation.
Approximate distribution: Projects and problems sets, 50%; Final project, 30%; Class participation, 20%.



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