FSem 132: Methods and Issues in Cryptology

Fall, 2006

Weekly Schedule

Class MWF 11:20-12:10
Link to Blackboard   Course Description   Policies    Applets  Tools

Week                 Topic                                 Reading             


Aug  25               Introduction                                                                                                       mess1, mess2, mess3

Aug  28              No Class
        30               Simple Ciphers,                               The Adventure of the Dancing Men-1  
                                                                                    The Adventure of the Dancing Men-2            
Sept   1               transposition, substitution                 Singh pp. 1-26  (slides1)                               Quiz 1
                                                                                                                                                           
first day solutions due


Sept   4               Frequency analysis                          Singh pp. 26-44, Beutelspacher pp.1-18         Quiz 2 due       
                                                                                    example mess3a                  
          6               sophisticated substitutions                Beutelspacher pp.25-27                                 homework #1 due (solution)
          8               Playfair                                                                                                                    mess4   mess4a

Sept 11               Vigenere cipher                               Singh ch. 2   history slides   poly method slides   letter freq other languages
        13               Analysis of Vigenere                       Beutelspacher pp. 27-41
                           Index of Coincidence, Kasiski                                                 examples                 Quiz 3 due
        15               code breaking lab                           The Gold Bug

Sept 18               code breaking lab                          Beutelspacher pp. 52-55, Singh pp. 101-124
        20               rotation ciphers                              Korner, chapters 13, to page 331.
        22               combining methods, ADFGVX      Singh, appendix F slides on keyword transposition

Sept 25                Discussion -- historical impact of ciphers                                                              Quiz 4 due
        27                !! Meet in the Clark Room in JCC !!
                            Use of Colgate Libraries -- Guest: Librarian Peter Tagtmeyer
        29                review                                          timeline of cryptology                                         lab 1 due (solution)
Oct    2                Mechanization of ciphers              Singh, Ch. 3.
          4                Exam 1     solutions                      History, Readings (Dancing Men, Gold Bug), methods
          6                How the enigma works  slides      Korner, chapters 13,  Wikipedia on Engima  or   Ellsbury on Enigma(1-4)
                                                                                  paper 1 due

Oct    9                Breaking the Enigma, Poles slides Singh, Ch. 4, pp 143-160, Korner Ch. 14
        11                Breaking the Enigma, Turing          Korner, Ch. 15                                                  Quiz 5 due
        13                Breaking the Enigma                      Singh, Ch. 4 160-189                  paper part2 due                     

Oct  16                 Fall Break
        18                 Enigma video, first half
        20                 Enigma video, second half                                                                                      Quiz 6 due

Oct  23                 Enigma video, conclusion, discussion       mess5
        25                 Turing Bombe   slides                   Ellsbury on Enigma (Turing Bombe 1-5) 
        27                 Historical significance                   US WW I and WW II slides          Homework 2 due (solution)

Oct  30                 Navajo code-talkers video            mess5 extra credit due
Nov   1                 Other WW II ciphers
          3                 discussion and review

Nov   6                 Exam 2                                                                                              final project ideas
          8                 The key distributions problem        Singh, Ch. 6, 243-279
                             The idea of public key codes
        10                 Key exchange, RSA                        Beutelspacher,  97-120               project description and sources due

Nov 13                Algorithms and complexity             AlgComp1   AlgComp2            RSA example
        15                Why is RSA secure                         Singh, Ch. 6,279-292             
                                                                                     Beutelspacher, 121-132              RSA FAQ      factoring information    
        17                Block ciphers DES, AES                DES slides                                  Official US DES  
                                                                                   Quiz 7 due                                    Wikipedia on DES
                                                                                                                                         project outline & bibliography due

Nov 20                How they work - SDES                   Singh Ch. 7                      SDES Instructions,   SDES Example
Nov 22                Thanksgiving Break
Nov 24                Thanksgiving Break

Nov 27               SDES, AES                                       AES slides                                              
        29               Overview of modern encryption       Quiz 8 due
Dec   1               final presentations                              
                           Kovacic and Levine - the Venona project (NSA)
                           LeGaye, McIntyre, Kinney -Phil Zimmerman and PGP -- reading: Singh, Ch. 7                   

Dec   4               final presentations                      
                          Feldman, Fries, Mercado -Hieroglyphics and the Rosetta Stone -- reading: Singh Ch. 5, pp. 201-217      
                          Smith, Salmon - Purple
         6               final presentations
                          Grossman, Lo, Schmetterling - Ancient Cryptogaphy
         8               final presentations                               projects due
                          Epstein, Gasparini, Lee - Colossus -- reading: Singh: Ch. 6, pp. 243-244
                          Hogan, Koontz - NSA
                                                                                     Quiz 9 due


        No Final