Core 139: Methods and Issues in Cryptology

Fall, 2007

Weekly Schedule

Class MW 1:20-2:35
Link to Blackboard   Course Description   Policies    Applets  Tools

Week                 Topic                                 Reading             


Aug  27              Introduction                                                                                                        mess1, mess2, mess3
        29               Simple Ciphers,                               The Adventure of the Dancing Men, part 1   
                          transposition, substitution                 Singh pp. 1-26  (slides1)                               first day solutions due

Sept   3               Frequency analysis                          Singh pp. 26-44, Beutelspacher pp.1-18      first day solutions due                                      
          5               sophisticated substitutions                Beutelspacher pp.25-27                             The Adventure of the Dancing Men, part 2                     
                           Playfair                                                                                                                 mess4

Sept 10               Vigenere cipher                             Singh ch. 2   history slides   poly method slides   homework #1 due
        12               Analysis of Vigenere                       Beutelspacher pp. 27-41  letter freq other languages
                           Index of Coincidence, Kasiski                                                                                 examples
                                                                                The Gold Bug

Sept 17               code breaking lab                          Beutelspacher pp. 52-55, Singh pp. 101-124
        19               rotation ciphers                              Korner, chapters 13, to page 331.


Sept 24               combining methods, ADFGVX      Singh, appendix F slides on keyword transposition
                           discussion -- historical impact of ciphers
        26                review                                          timeline of cryptology                                         lab 1 due (solution)

Oct    1                Exam 1                                       History, Readings (Dancing Men, Gold Bug), methods
          3                Mechanization of ciphers              Singh, Ch. 3.           
                            How the enigma works  slides      Korner, chapters 13,  Wikipedia on Engima  or   Ellsbury on Enigma(1-4)
                                                                               paper 1 due

Oct    8                Enigma video, first half                 Nova site with supporting materials
        10                Enigma video, second half

Oct  15                 Break
        17                 Breaking the Enigma, Poles slides  Singh, Ch. 4, pp 143-160, Korner Ch. 14

Oct  22                 Navajo code-talkers video
        24                 Breaking the Enigma, Turing          Korner, Ch. 15            paper 2 due
                                                                                 Singh, Ch. 4 160-189        

Oct  29                 Turing Bombe   slides                   Ellsbury on Enigma (Turing Bombe 1-5)
                             
        31                Historical significance                    lab 2 due            lab 2 methods      lab 2 solutions

Nov   5                Exam 2                                           final project ideas
          7                 The key distributions problem        Singh, Ch. 6, 243-279
                             The idea of public key codes   
                            Key exchange, RSA                        Beutelspacher,  97-120      RSA example   RSA Information

Nov 12                 Algorithms and complexity              AlgComp1   AlgComp2                 project description and sources due
        14                  Block ciphers DES, AES               DES slides                                    Official US DES  
                                                                                   Quiz 7 due                                    Wikipedia on DES
                                                                                   (under assignments on Blackboard) 


Nov 19                How they work - SDES                   Singh Ch. 7       project outline & bibliography due     SDES Instructions,   SDES Example               
Nov 21                Thanksgiving Break

Nov 26                 SDES, AES                                       AES slides  
                             Overview of modern encryption       Quiz 8 due (under assignments on Blackboard) 
        28                  final presentations                              SDES homework due (from those who missed class Nov 19)
                                    Mahjoubi, McDonald, Myerson - Purple
                                    Bose, Katz, Murphy - PGP          reading: Singh, ch. 7
                                    Denton - Maya Glyphs


Dec   3                   final presentations                            reading:: Singh pp.201-242
                                    Appleby, Kaplan, Katznelson - Maya Glyphs
                                    Benfield, Shiverick, Weinberg - Translating ancient languages
         5                   final presentations                            Quiz 9 due (under assignments on Blackboard) 
                                    Elliott, Reynolds - Linear B
                                    Dorr, Musiker - Purple
                                    Arick, Muskin, Rothbard, Sheehan - NSA


No Final Exam