CMSC 858K --- Introduction to Secure Computation
Fall 2013
Course Overview
This course is an introduction to secure computation (broadly construed), primarily intended for graduate students interested in research in this or related areas.
Though the topic grew out of the cryptography community, there is now active interest in this area from the networking and programming-languages communities as well.
The intention is to focus on the following topics:
- Secure two-party and multi-party computation, both the theoretical background as well as recent implementations (roughly 50% of the lectures)
- Oblivious RAM (roughly 1-2 lectures)
- Secure outsourcing, connections to ABE and functional encryption (roughly 25% of the lectures)
- Notions of privacy (roughly 25% of the lectures)
(See here for a tentative syllabus.) The course will emphasize definitions, foundations, and formal proofs of security. Students are expected to read papers from the literature, and write scribe notes summarizing what is covered in class.
It is my intention to make the course accessible to students who have not taken cryptography before, and no prior background in cryptography is assumed.
Mathematical maturity, however, is assumed.
Moreover, be warned that this is not a "survey" course on cryptography, so students who take no other cryptography course will miss out on some fundamental aspects of the field.
Course Requirements
It is expected that students taking this course are interested in potential research in this area and,
as such, none of the course requirements will present a problem for anyone taking the class.
The requirements are:
- Regular attendance
- Reading assigned references, which will be listed here in advance of lecture.
- Scribing lecture notes (in latex). The number of lectures to be scribed by each student will depend on how many students take the class.
The scribe notes will be updated throughout the semester.
- There will be a midterm and an in-class final exam only for those students taking the course for grad credit
Note that there will not be any homeworks; I think scribing lecture notes is a better way to learn this sort of material anyway.
For further information about scribing lectures, see here.
Announcements
- Class will be cancelled on Sept. 6, 20, and 27.
General Information
- Instructor: Jonathan Katz (jkatz AT cs). Office: 3225 AV Williams. Office hours: by appointment.
- The course meets Monday, Wednesday, and Friday from 11 - 11:50 in CSIC 2107