Cryptology
CSC 440 (701 & 710)

Marcus Schaefer


Homeworks and Examples

Assignments will be available through this webpage. Written homeworks are due at the beginning of class. Late homeworks will not be accepted, but the lowest homework score will be dropped.

Homework

due

Notes

Questions and Answers

Schedule

Classes and office hours

The in-class section meets Th 5:45pm-9:00pm, CS&T 218. This course is COL/DL.

Office hours are Tu 3:15-4:45 and Th 4-5:30.

During that time you can find me in the CS&TC building, room 749.
If you want to set up an appointment at another time, or simply ask a question, 
send email to mschaefer@cdm.depaul.edu.

Textbook

Required text (new edition): Trappe, Washington: Introduction to Cryptography, Prentice Hall, ISBN: 0131862391 ; 2nd edition (July 15, 2005).

There are several cryptography texts available as e-books at the library web-page for free (you need your campusconnect information to log into the proxy server).

Syllabus

The following is a very rough schedule, and we might depart from it.

Week 1-3

Classical Ciphers (Caesar, Substitution, Transposition, Vigenere, Hill Cipher, etc.),
Cryptanalysis, Statistics, Mathematical Foundations

Week 4- 6

Modern Block Ciphers (DES, AES), and attacks (differential cryptanalysis)

Week 7-10

Public Key Cryptography (DH Key exchange, RSA, ElGamal) and attacks
Advanced topics (Secret Sharing, Zero-Knowledge Proofs, Quantum Cryptography)

 Official class syllabus.

Grades and exams

Homework, quizzes: 40%, Midterm: 30%, Final: 30%. I will use the following grading scheme:

Grade Percentage
A 95-100
A- 90-95
B+ 87-90
B 83-87
B- 80-83
C+ 77-80
C 73-77
C- 70-73
D+ 65-70
D 60-65
F <60

Throughout the quarter there will be extra credit problems; extra credit does not directly make up for points lost on homeworks or exams; instead it is added in with a weight at the end to adjust grades upwards.

The midterm and final exams for the in-class section will take place during class. No make-up exams.

General Policies

Academic Honesty

Incomplete

An incomplete grade is given only for an exceptional reason such as a death in the family, a serious illness, etc. Any such reason must be documented. Any incomplete request must be made at least two weeks before the final, and approved by the Dean of the School of Computer Science, Telecommunications and Information Systems. Any consequences resulting from a poor grade for the course will not be considered as valid reasons for such a request.


Marcus Schaefer
Last updated: August 22nd, 2007.