ECE 628 - Computer Network Security
Instructor
Professor Mahesh Tripunitara, email
Philosophy
Computer and Network Security is perceived widely as an important and technically challenging topic for research and practice. The challenges are both conceptual and applied. In this course, our focus will be applied cryptography. Cryptography is a science whose natural application is to security. We will discuss several topics from cryptography from the standpoint of securing computers and networks.
Content
We will cover several topics from the textbook by Katz and Lindell. See below under "Textbook" for details of the book. The topics include: an introduction to cryptography, perfectly secret encryption, private-key crypto, hash functions and message authentication codes, and public-key crypto. In those contexts, we will discuss also several relevant algorithmic problems such as integer factorization.
Prerequisites
Graduate standing in ECE at Waterloo. A background in algorithms, such as that provided by ECE 606, will be useful.
Marking
In-class
quizzes
based
on
weekly
problem
sets:
50%
Final
exam:
50%
Textbook
We will follow the following book closely. You may benefit from purchasing it. Electronic versions, which are cheaper than hard-copies, are available and will suffice.
Introduction to Modern Cryptography, Second Edition (Chapman & Hall/CRC Cryptography and Network Security Series) Jonathan Katz, Yehuda Lindell