CS547 Cryptography and Data Security


Instructor: Prof. Claude Crépeau

Office : Room 109/302, McConnell Eng. Building
3480 University Street
phone: (514) 398-4716
email: crepeau@cs.mcgill.ca

T.A.: George Savvides

Office : Room 235, McConnell Eng. Building
3480 University Street
phone: (514) 398-7071 x0699
email: gsavvi1@cs.mcgill.ca

Office Hours:
Claude : Tuesday + Thursday 13h00 - 15h00, McConnell 109/302.
George : TBA, McConnell 235.


Description: (3 credits, 3 hours). This course presents an in-depth study of modern cryptography and data security. We investigate four important subjects of cryptography: data encryption, message authentication, user identification and key distribution. The basic information theoretic and computational security of classical and modern cryptographic systems are analysed. The course is self-contained and all necessary mathematical background will be explicitely covered.


Objectives: Discover how Alice may send a secret message to Bob that nobody else can understand, how he may be certain that this message came from Alice, how she can prove him who she is with revealing anyhting about the proof (!) , and how they can exchange a secret key using dim pulses of laser light, etc.


Mandatory textbook: Cryptography - Theory and Practice (second edition) by Doug Stinson. Chapman and Hall/CRC Press, Inc. ISBN 1-58488-206-9


Evaluation: There will be 5 homework assigments worth 50% of your final grade and a final exam worth 50%. The homeworks will have some theoretical components worth 30% and applications using Maple worth 20%.
Honnêteté académique: L'université McGill attache une haute importance à l'honnêteté académique. Il incombe par conséquent à tous les étudiants de comprendre ce que l'on entend par tricherie, plagiat et autres infractions académiques, ainsi que les conséquences que peuvent avoir de telles actions, selon le Code de conduite de l'étudiant et des procédures disciplinaires (pour de plus amples renseignements, veuillez consulter le site www.mcgill.ca/integrity).
Academic integrity: McGill University values academic integrity. Therefore all students must understand the meaning and consequences of cheating, plagiarism and other academic offences under the Code of Student Conduct and Disciplinary Procedures (see www.mcgill.ca/integrity for more information).

Course outline (Subject to small modifications):