Security Models and Reasoning about Security

The primary goal of this class is to bring students to a level where they understand enough about cryptography to use it intelligently, while gaining some insight into how cryptographic operations work. However, it is not a cryptography class in the sense of learning the science of cryptography, and the Stallings book is similarly focused and does not discuss the science of cryptography. The purpose of this handout is to give you some insight into how cryptographers think about security. Even if you never study more cryptography, the concepts that have been developed in cryptography are extremely powerful for the clarity they bring to thinking and reasoning about security. Some details are glossed over in this handout, and there are subtle issues that are only apparent with more study. If you want to learn more about the formal study of cryptography, I would recommend the book Introduction to Modern Cryptography by Katz and Lindell, or the lecture notes by Bellare and Rogaway (also entitled Introduction to Modern Cryptography!) that are freely available at http://cseweb.ucsd.edu/ ̃mihir/cse207/classnotes.html.