General Information

Instructor: Huijia (Rachel) Lin, rachel(at)cs

TA: Siddharth Iyer Vaidyanathan siyer@cs.washington.edu

TA: Aditya Saraf sarafa@cs.washington.edu

Email to all staff: cse490c-staff@cs.washington.edu

Class mailing list: cse490c_au19@uw.edu

Time and location:

• Class: Monday/Wednesday/Friday 3:30pm-4:20pm, CSE2 G04
• Session 1: Thursday 1:30-2:20pm, AND 008
• Session 2: Thursday 2:30-3:20pm, SAV 162

Office hours:

• Aditya Saraf: Mon. 12:30 - 1:20pm CSE1 007
• Rachel Lin: Wed. 2:15 - 3:15pm CSE1 652
• Siddharth Iyer Vaidyanathan: Thursday 10-11am at CSE1 007

Discussion: We are going to use Piazza https://piazza.com/configure-classes/fall2019/cse490c.

Notes: Notes and reading material will be posted on Piazza

Accommodations: We will follow UW policies for disability accommodations and religious accommodations.

Policy: Please also refer to UW policies on conduct and academic integerity

Topics

Cryptography provides important tools for ensuring the confidentiality and integrity of sensitive digital data. This course covers the design and application of important cryptographic objects, including basic cryptographic tools, such as encryption, message authentication, and digital signatures, as well as advanced cryptographic objects and protocols, such as zero-knowledge proofs, secure multi-party computation, and fully homomorphic encryption. For each cryptographic object, we formalize its security goal, show schemes that achieve the desired security, and study security attacks or security proofs that establish the insecurity or security of the scheme at hand.

Through this course, we aim to give an overview of the discipline of cryptography, the proper usage and application of important cryptographic tools, and methodologies that modern cryptography offers for developing cryptographic solutions to natural security problems.

Pre-req: CSE 312 and CSE 332. The class will be self-contained. But students are expected to be ready to understand mathematical definitions and proofs, and write simple ones. Exposure to basic probability / algebra / number theory, and theory of computing is also expected.

Resources

There is no specific textbook. Notes and reading material will be posted on Piazza. The textbook by Katz and Lindell would be a good resource, Introduction to Modern Cryptography. Below is a list of additional lecture notes and textbooks.

• D. Stinson Cryptography, Theory and Practice (a textbook on different concrete crypto systems, more math oriented.)
• R. Pass and a. shelat. A Course in Cryptography (fun and intuitive lecture notes for an undergrad crypto class, focusing on theory)
• M. Bellare and P. Rogaway's lecture notes. Introduction to Modern Cryptography (lecture notes for a grad class, a blend of theory and practice)
• O. Goldreich. The Foundations of Cryptography (a thorough and formal textbook on foundations.)
• D. Boneh and V. Shoup A Graduate Course in Applied Cryptography (a textbook on applied cryptography)

Grading:

Homework 50% Midterm 15-20% Final 30-35%