MIT EECS COURSE ANNOUNCEMENT SPRING TERM 2004 6.897 Selected Topics in Cryptography Instructors: Ran Canetti and Ronald L. Rivest canetti@theory.lcs.mit.edu, rivest@mit.edu+ When/Where: Thursdays 11:00--12:30 in 36-144, and Fridays 2:30--4:00 in 36-112. First class is 2/5/2004. Note the unusual schedule. Credit: 3-0-9; Grad-H Credit Pre-requisite: 6.875 or permission of the instructors. 6.897 is a new graduate course on ``selected topics in cryptography''; it emphasizes advanced topics in cryptography related to recent developments in the field. The details of the course outline are still being worked out, and may depend a bit on who takes the course and what topics they favor. A tentative syllabus for the course is: * Basic notions of security for cryptographic protocols. * The universally composable (UC) security framework; UC commitment and ZK; general feasibility results; UC with joint state. * UC formulations of signatures, key exchange, and secure channels. * Protocols for electonic voting. * ``Exotic'' signature schemes. * Public-key infrastructures (PKI). * Concrete security reductions. * Extractors and privacy amplification. This course is likely to be a one-time event; it is not likely to become a regular part of the curriculum. If you are tentatively interested in taking this class, please send email to 6897s04-staff@lists.csail.mit.edu and/or join the mailing list 6897s04-students@lists.csail.mit.edu by visiting the web site http://lists.csail.mit.edu/ If you are interested in the class, but the hours are unworkable for you, please send us mail, with an indication of what hours on Thu/Fri might would work better for you. See you there!