Tortoise
Security through barriers.
Yale University Department of Computer Science
Michael J. Fischer

CS 461: Foundations of Cryptography

Resources, Spring 2004
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Gloves
Gloves from a space suit.
Pupae
Butterflys grow safely inside.
The Jefferson wheel.
JeffersonWheel
An early encoding device.
Entrance to a Ming Dynasty tomb, north of Beijing, China
Approach
A securable approach to an underground tomb.
Warrior
 
Volume 2 of textbook

We will only be covering a few selected sections from volume 2 of the textbook, Oded Goldreich, Foundations of Cryptography. The book is not yet published. Pre-publication copies of the chapters are available here.

  • Chapter 5: Encryption Schemes (.pdf or .ps)
  • Chapter 6: Digital Signatures and Message Authentication (.pdf or .ps)
  • Chapter 7: General Cryptographic Protocols (.pdf or .ps)
  • Appendix C: Corrections and Additions to Volume 1 (.pdf or .ps)
  • Bibliography (.pdf or .ps)

Additional readings for course (beyond textbook)

  • Ran Canetti, Oded Goldreich, and Shai Halevi, The Random Oracle Methodology, Revisited (.pdf or .ps)
Readings on cryptography and network security (not required)

FAQ's:
A very good starting place for general cryptography information is the Crypto Mini-FAQ. It contains links to many other resources, including the now out-of-date (but still useful) 10-part Cryptography FAQ's (Frequently Asked Questions).

Another good on-line FAQ is maintained at the RSA Labs website.

Gnu Multiprecision Arithmetic Package (GMP):
This package contains efficient routines for performing arbitrary-precision arithmetic. The functions most relevant for this course are the mpz functions, which operate on large signed integers.

Relevant Newsgroups:
The unmoderated newsgroup sci.crypt contains mixture of postings on a wide variety of crypto-related topics.

The moderated newsgroup sci.crypt.research has low volume and technically focused postings.

Other Resources on the Web:
Ron Rivest (the "R" of RSA) maintains an index of links to a wealth of information on cryptography and security.

The USACM Encryption Policy Library contains pointers to policy debates, position papers, and pending legislation concerning encryption and computer security.

Bruce Schneier of Counterpane Systems publishes a monthly cryptograpy newsletter, Crypto-gram. This is a good source of news on the current state of computer security and cryptography policy.
Last modified: Thu Apr 8 17:34:29 EDT 2004 Comments about this website should be directed to M. Fischer