[Cryptography] What to put in a new cryptography course

Thierry Moreau thierry.moreau at connotech.com
Thu Jul 7 10:09:29 EDT 2016


On 06/07/16 04:47 PM, Stephan Neuhaus wrote:
> On 2016-06-23 06:33, Phillip Hallam-Baker wrote:
>>
>> Some of the points I am planning to make are: [...]
>>
>> * Complexity is the enemy of security.
>
> Depending on what you mean by that, the evidence for this is pretty thin.

To some extent, you just provided a bit of evidence:

> Other than that, I've tried to find a way to teach ECC, but couldn't, at
> least not at the undergrad level.

If the ECC complexity may hardly be understood by ordinary computer 
security specialists, then its security rests mainly in the reputation 
of more expert minds. Security by reliance on someone else expertise ... 
the danger is when such reliance is recursive to a more or less well 
identified small group of experts.

More worrisome for the original post question, if/when you teach that 
ECC is a trend to follow, you might imprint this behavior of reliance on 
someone more expert for the security system principles.

Regards,

- Thierry

> Cheers,
>
> Stephan
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