Cryptography
(Complete Item Description)
- Abstract:
This course introduces cryptography by addressing topics such as ciphers that were used before World War II, block cipher algorithms, the advanced encryption standard for a symmetric-key encryption adopted by the U.S. government, MD5 and SHA-1 hash functions, and the message authentication code. The course will focus on public key cryptography (as exemplified by the RSA algorithm), elliptic curves, the Diffie-Hellman key exchange, and the elliptic curve discrete logarithm problem. The course concludes with key exchange methods, study signature schemes, and discussion of public key infrastructure. Note: It is strongly recommended that you complete an abstract algebra course (such as the Saylor Foundation’s MA231) before taking this course. Upon successful completion of this course, students will be able to: explain how symmetric and asymmetric key ciphers work; list and define cryptography’s goals; list and define the most common classical ciphers; explain the workings of mechanical ciphers Enigma and Lorenz; describe the principles of substitution-permutation networks; describe the algorithms for data encryption and the advanced encryption standard; describe and use the MD5 and SHA-1 hash functions; explain the idea behind public key cryptography; use the RSA cryptography system by applying it to practical problems; test whether the large integer is prime with the mathematical tools presented in this course; define the elliptic curve and use it in cryptography; explain the Diffie-Hellman key exchange; describe the most common signature and autokey identity schemes; describe the conceptual workings of public key infrastructure. This free course may be completed online at any time. (Computer Science 409)
- Subject:
- Mathematics and Statistics, Science and Technology
- Grade Level:
- Post-secondary
- Collection:
- Saylor Foundation