Manifest: Monday 25 September 2000

Assignments Due
27 September	Problem Set 2
4 October	Full Project Proposal

Readings
Before 27 September: Stallings, 8, 9.1 and 9.2.

Optional reading for more information: (see web version for links)

• Derek Atkins, et. al., The Magic Words are Squeamish Ossifrage, AsiaCrypt 1994.
• Papers on factoring
• RSA press release on Factorization of RSA-155.

Web Browsing

Next time you conduct a transaction on the Internet, click on the key symbol and the bottom of your browser. Does the certificate you find give you a warm and fuzzy feeling? If you find anything unusual, report it to the class.

Questions

• How hard is it to factor large numbers?
• Why do we believe RSA with 1024 bit keys is probably secure?
• What are the advantages and disadvantages of different approaches to distributing public keys?
• How do certificates work?

The problem of distinguishing prime numbers from composites, and of resolving composite numbers into their prime factors, is one of the most important and useful in all of arithmetic. The dignity of science seems to demand that every aid to the solution of such an elegant and celebrated problem be zealously cultivated.

Johann Carl Friedrich Gauss, Disquisitiones Arithmeticae, 1801.

University of Virginia Department of Computer Science CS 551: Security and Privacy on the Internet

David Evans evans@virginia.edu