Applied Cryptography

The Applied Cryptography course is designed to provide students with a comprehensive understanding of cryptographic techniques and their practical applications in securing information systems. The course goes beyond theoretical concepts, focusing on the practical understanding of cryptographic algorithms and protocols to address real-world security challenges.

Frequency

This course normally runs twice a year.

Course dates

Objectives

Upon completion, students will:

• Master fundamental cryptographic concepts and apply cryptographic algorithms.
• Design and evaluate basic secure cryptographic protocols for authentication and confidentiality
• Gain practical experience in using cryptographic solutions
• Apply cryptography in real-world scenarios using OpenSSL cryptographic library
• Understand the trends in terms of quantum crypto, confidential computing, and advanced applications such as blockchain and digital currencies

Contents

Introduction: History of cryptography and ciphers; real-world attacks; different uses of cryptography today, threat models, cryptography for fun and profit

Gentle overview of the theoretical underpinnings: Conceptual understanding of randomness and random numbers, entropy, complexity theory, and a bit of number theory

Symmetric Cryptography: Understanding symmetric key algorithms, hash functions, message authentication codes; overview of real world symmetric ciphers such as DES and AES

Asymmetric Cryptography: Understanding public key algorithms, key generation, digital signatures and digital certificates; overview of real-world cryptographic algorithms such as RSA, Diffie-Hellman

Cryptographic Protocols: Designing secure communication protocols, key exchange, authentication protocols. Overview of SSL/TLS and other practical examples.

Hands-On Project: Gain practical experience by creating public-private keys, encryption/decryption, digital certificates by using OpenSSL cryptographic library

Emerging Trends and Technologies: Explore post-quantum cryptography, blockchain security, and homomorphic encryption.

Requirements

There are no requirements for this course.