Cryptographic Protocols and Their Applications

The course can be taught every year and every semester based on demand, both in Trondheim and Gjøvik. Interested students can contact the course coordinator to coordinate when the course is offered.

The course will study mechanisms and properties of cryptographic protocols that establish and maintain security properties of information exchange in two-party and multiparty settings within ambient open communications networks. More complex requirements beyond basic communication secrecy and authenticity are identified in e-commerce, banking services, health informatics, digital payments and credentials, auctions, voting. The course will give models and classes of attack; computational classes, parameter and key establishment protocols; authentication protocols; commitment protocols; zero-knowledge techniques; consensus/multiparty computations; privacy-preserving protocols, and formal specification and reasoning.

A. Knowledge: 1) Acquire an overview and understanding of the problems, notions, definitions, design principles and proof techniques for selected cryptographic protocols referred to under course content. 2) Insight into some typical applications of cryptographic protocols in networked systems, as referred to under course content.

B. Skills: 1) The ability to describe, analyse and construct cryptographic protocols. 2) The ability to apply proof techniques and automatic verification tools to existing and new constructions.

C. General competence: Individually author a technical paper for publication.

Lectures, colloquiums, assignments, compulsory oral presentation, and self-study.