Supplementary Information for COMP61411

Contents

  • Course plan week by week
  • Course slides
  • General resources
  • Books and comments

    The course is principally designed around the material in the first three parts (i.e. chapters 1-13) of the main course text, William Stallings's "Cryptography and Network Security: Principles and Practice" (5th ed., Pearson Education, 2011), using many lecture slides prepared by Lawrie Brown (regarding which, I can't express how much I appreciate the fact that these are made available in *editable* form). There is additional material, and further references and comments appear below. N.B. Stallings's book is also a core text for the followup course COMP61421.

    Course Plan

    Week 1

    Introduction to the main issues.
    Classical encryption techniques.
    Rotor machines and Enigma.
    Case study: Marian Rejewski
    and breaking the German Enigma.

    Exercises 1.

    Week 2

    Block cyphers and DES.
    Finite fields.
    AES.
    More on block cyphers.

    Exercises 2.

    Week 3

    Stream cyphers.
    Intro to number theory.
    Public-Key cryptography and RSA.
    Other public-key cryptosystems.

    Exercises 3.

    Week 4

    Hash functions.
    Message authentication codes.
    Digital signatures.

    Exercises 4.

    Week 5

    Fake quantum theory.
    Quantum cryptography protocols.
    Practical quantum cryptography systems.

    Exercises 5.

    Overall Course Assessment.
    Exam: 50%, Exercises 1-5: 50%

    Course Slides

    Course Slides (.pdf)

    General Resources

    COMP61411 Exercises (.pdf)        Answer Notebook (.nb)

    Practical Hints (.txt)        van Tilborg's Cryptology Notebook (Updated) (.nb)

    Books

    Stallings W.
    Cryptography and Network Security: Principles and Practice
    5th ed., Pearson Education; ISBN: 013705632X (2011)
    (The main course text. Quite detailed and not excessively
    mathematical. Lots of worked examples etc.)

    Ferguson N., Schneier B., Kohno T.
    Cryptography Engineering
    John Wiley & Sons; ISBN: 0470474246 (2010)
    (An excellent accompaniment to the main text. Though
    somewhat less detailed than Stallings, it is written by
    some of the world's leading practitioners. The writing has
    a riveting style that really tells it like it is with cryptography.)

    Paar C., Pelzl J.
    Understanding Cryptography
    Springer; ISBN: 3642041000 (2009)
    (A nice compact treatment of the subject. Good
    if you want an account that gets to the heart of
    the matter without wasting too many words.)

    Hoffstein J., Pipher J., Silverman J.
    An Introduction to Mathematical Cryptography
    Springer; ISBN: 9780387779935 (2008)
    (Focused on the mathematical aspects of modern
    cryptography, it explains the essential concepts
    very clearly, without getting too embroiled in the
    deeper underlying results. So it's more approachable
    than the more hard-headed mathematical texts below.)

    =========================================

    Salomon D.
    Data Privacy and Security
    Springer N.Y.; ISBN: 0387003118 (2003)
    (A very readable book containing a nice treatment of Enigma.)

    Singh S.
    The Code Book
    Fourth Estate; ISBN: 1857028791 (1999)
    (Really, this is a popular bestseller (which, moreover, has
    appeared under many different ISBNs), but it's written so
    well that it unquestionably merits inclusion in this booklist.
    Has a delightful account of Enigma.)

    =========================================

    Loepp S., Wooters W.
    Protecting Information: From Classical Error Correcion to Quantum Cryptography
    Cambridge U.P.; ISBN: 0521534763 (2006)
    (This is a fairly short book that includes quite a bit on
    quantum theory and a bit on quantum cryptography.)

    =========================================

    Schneier B.
    Applied Cryptography
    John Wiley & Sons; ISBN: 0471117099 (1996)
    (Still an absolute classic. Commenting on key escrow (in 1996!),
    it contains the chillingly prophetic: 'Imagine a major terrorist
    attack on New York; what sorts of limits on the police would be
    thrown aside in the aftermath?' (Page 99 if you're interested.))

    =========================================

    Mollin R.
    An Introduction to Cryptography
    Chapman and Hall/CRC; ISBN: 1584886188 (2007)
    (A mathematics-first introduction to cryptography.)

    Stinson D.
    Cryptography Theory and Practice
    3rd ed., Chapman & Hall; ISBN: 1584885084 (2005)
    (A long established mathematics-first standard text.)

    Katz J., Lindell Y.
    Introduction to Modern Cryptography
    Chapman & Hall; ISBN: 1584885513 (2008)
    (Another, newer, mathematics-first text.)

    Pieprzyk J., Hardjono T., Seberry J.
    Fundamentals of Computer Security
    Springer; ISBN: 3540431012 (2003)
    (A mathematics-first treatment of cryptography.)

    Mao W.
    Modern Cryptography
    Prentice Hall Professional; ISBN: 0130669431 (2004)
    (A thoroughgoing mathematics-first treatment of cryptography.)

    =========================================

    Anderson R.
    Security Engineering (2nd ed.)
    John Wiley & Sons; ISBN: 0470068523 (2008)
    (The most highly respected book on the wider issues of
    computer security. Some incredible stories. Also contains
    a good, if quite brief, account of cryptography.)

    Gollman D.
    Computer Security
    John Wiley & Sons; ISBN: 9780470741153 (2011)
    (Looking at the wider issue of computer security,
    beyond just the concerns of cryptography.)

    Newman R.
    Computer Security
    Jones and Bartlett; ISBN: 9780763759940 (2010)
    (Considers computer security, but with a much greater
    emphasis on the human side than Gollman.)

    Martin K.
    Everyday Cryptography
    Oxford University Press; ISBN: 0199695598 (2012)
    (Covers all the topics in the subject, but is quite
    light on the mathematical details. Not really enough
    to act as a course text for this course.)

    Past Papers

    Past Papers (.pdf)