Cybersecurity: Applied Cryptography Course

Lesson 1 • Mathematical Preliminaries for Cryptography

Covers modular arithmetic, prime numbers, and basic probability needed to understand cryptographic proofs. Provides the minimum mathematical fluency required for all subsequent chapters.

Lesson 2 • Cryptographic Primitives Overview

Surveys hash functions, symmetric ciphers, and asymmetric schemes as building blocks. Establishes vocabulary and relationships between primitives used throughout the course.

Lesson 3 • History and Evolution of Cryptography

Traces cryptography from classical ciphers to modern algorithms, establishing context for current standards. Grounds later technical content in historical motivation and failure analysis.

Lesson 1 • Symmetric Key Management Practices

Addresses key generation, storage, rotation, and destruction for symmetric systems. Establishes lifecycle discipline that prevents cryptographic failures in production environments.

Lesson 2 • AES: Architecture and Security Analysis

Details AES byte substitution, shift rows, mix columns, and key schedule operations. Analyses known attacks and explains why AES remains the dominant symmetric standard.

Lesson 3 • Modes of Operation and Their Trade-offs

Compares ECB, CBC, CTR, GCM, and other modes for confidentiality and integrity properties. Guides students in choosing the correct mode for specific deployment scenarios.

Lesson 4 • Block Cipher Design Principles

Examines substitution-permutation networks, Feistel structures, and confusion-diffusion properties. Connects design choices to resistance against differential and linear cryptanalysis.

Lesson 1 • Message Authentication Codes

Covers HMAC construction, CMAC, and Poly1305 as integrity-plus-authenticity primitives. Distinguishes MACs from digital signatures and explains when each is appropriate.

Lesson 2 • Merkle Trees and Integrity Structures

Explains Merkle tree construction, proof generation, and verification for large dataset integrity. Connects this structure to blockchain, certificate transparency, and software update systems.

Lesson 3 • Password Hashing and Key Derivation

Examines bcrypt, scrypt, Argon2, and PBKDF2 as memory-hard and compute-hard password storage schemes. Connects parameter tuning to resistance against GPU and ASIC-based cracking.

Lesson 4 • SHA Family and Modern Hash Standards

Analyses SHA-1 deprecation, SHA-2 Merkle-Damgard construction, and SHA-3 sponge design. Equips students to select appropriate hash algorithms for compliance and security requirements.

Lesson 1 • Digital Signatures: Schemes and Standards

Examines RSA-PSS, DSA, ECDSA, and EdDSA for non-repudiation and message authenticity. Compares security assumptions, performance, and implementation pitfalls across schemes.

Lesson 2 • RSA: Mathematics, Design, and Attacks

Derives RSA from Euler's theorem, covers key generation, encryption, and decryption operations. Analyses factoring attacks, small exponent attacks, and padding requirements.

Lesson 3 • Elliptic Curve Cryptography Fundamentals

Introduces elliptic curve group law, discrete logarithm hardness, and standard curve parameters. Demonstrates ECC's efficiency advantage over RSA at equivalent security levels.

Lesson 4 • Public Key Infrastructure Concepts

Explains certificate structure, trust chains, certificate authorities, and revocation mechanisms. Prepares students for PKI deployment covered in the applied protocols chapter.

Lesson 1 • Authenticated Encryption in Protocols

Examines AEAD schemes such as AES-GCM and ChaCha20-Poly1305 as used in modern protocols. Explains nonce management, tag verification, and failure modes in protocol contexts.

Lesson 2 • SSH Protocol and Secure Remote Access

Explains SSH key exchange, host authentication, and channel multiplexing for secure remote administration. Covers key-based authentication configuration and common misconfiguration risks.

Lesson 3 • Common TLS Attacks and Mitigations

Covers BEAST, POODLE, CRIME, Heartbleed, and downgrade attacks with root cause analysis. Translates each attack into concrete configuration hardening actions.

Lesson 4 • Secure Messaging and End-to-End Encryption

Analyses the Signal protocol, Double Ratchet algorithm, and X3DH key agreement for end-to-end encrypted messaging. Connects protocol design to forward secrecy and break-in recovery properties.

Lesson 1 • Side-Channel and Fault Attacks

Covers timing attacks, power analysis, electromagnetic leakage, and fault injection against hardware and software implementations. Links countermeasures to constant-time programming and hardware shielding.

Lesson 2 • Protocol-Level Attack Patterns

Examines replay attacks, oracle attacks, downgrade attacks, and cross-protocol attacks against cryptographic protocols. Teaches systematic protocol analysis using formal and informal methods.

Lesson 3 • Differential and Linear Cryptanalysis

Introduces differential and linear cryptanalysis as the primary tools for evaluating block cipher strength. Demonstrates how these attacks inform minimum round count and S-box design requirements.

Lesson 4 • Classical Cryptanalysis Methods

Applies frequency analysis, index of coincidence, and Kasiski examination to classical ciphers. Builds analytical intuition that transfers to understanding modern attack principles.

Lesson 1 • Encryption at Rest: Databases and Storage

Examines transparent data encryption, column-level encryption, and encrypted file systems for data-at-rest protection. Addresses key management integration and performance trade-offs.

Lesson 2 • Cryptographic Code Review and Auditing

Develops a systematic checklist-driven approach to reviewing cryptographic code for vulnerabilities. Prepares students to conduct or participate in security audits of cryptographic implementations.

Lesson 3 • Cryptographic API Design and Misuse

Analyses common cryptographic API misuse patterns including hardcoded keys, weak defaults, and incorrect IV handling. Establishes principles for designing APIs that are hard to use incorrectly.

Lesson 4 • Secure Coding Practices for Cryptography

Teaches constant-time comparison, memory zeroisation, and safe random number generation in code. Provides language-specific guidance for avoiding implementation vulnerabilities.

Lesson 1 • Hash-Based and Code-Based Signatures

Covers SPHINCS+, XMSS, and Classic McEliece as alternative post-quantum signature and encryption schemes. Compares signature size, verification speed, and statefulness trade-offs.

Lesson 2 • Cryptographic Agility and Migration Planning

Teaches cryptographic agility design patterns and structured migration roadmaps for transitioning to post-quantum algorithms. Addresses inventory, prioritisation, and testing strategies for large-scale migrations.

Lesson 3 • Lattice-Based Cryptography

Introduces Learning With Errors, NTRU, and CRYSTALS-Kyber as leading lattice-based schemes. Explains hardness assumptions and parameter selection for quantum-resistant key encapsulation.

Lesson 4 • NIST Post-Quantum Standardisation

Reviews the NIST post-quantum standardisation process, selected algorithms, and finalised standards. Prepares students to reference authoritative guidance when making algorithm selection decisions.