The course contains a number of mathematical tools with many applications, not only in cryptology and security. Most schemes addressed in the course are standards in different communication systems, e.g., elliptic curve cryptosystems. Few people have the mathematical background to be able to understand how such systems work. We also look at models for proving that a cryptographic scheme or protocol is secure.
The content of the course is more specifically most of the following topics: cryptosystems based on discrete logarithms, elliptic curve cryptography, factoring and the discrete log problem, symmetric ciphers, digital signatures and hash functions, authentication, secret sharing, complexity theory, provable security and random oracles.
