Topics in Applied Cryptography

COMP 790-188 - Fall 2025

August
Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday
18	19 Course overview	20	21 Foundations Readings The Moral Character of Cryptographic Work (Review optional/extra credit)	22
25	26 Foundations (cont.) Readings Cybersecurity is not very important (Review optional/extra credit)	27	28 Messaging protocols Readings Off-the-Record Communication, or, Why Not To Use PGP	29

September
Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday
01	02 E2EE messaging Readings SoK: Secure Messaging SoK: Confidentiality of Data on Mobile Devices	03	04 Authentication: VRFs and OPRFs Readings A Verifiable Random Function with Short Proofs and Keys Round-Optimal Password-Protected Secret Sharing and T-PAKE in the Password-Only model (first 3 sections only)	05
08	09 Authentication: Anonymous credentials Readings Algebraic MACs and Keyed-Verification Anonymous Credentials Anonymous Tokens with Stronger Metadata Bit Hiding from Algebraic MACs	10	11 Authentication: Fancy signatures Readings Group Signatures Blind signatures for untraceable payments	12
15	16 Authentication systems Readings CONIKS: Bringing Key Transparency to End Users Privacy Pass: Bypassing Internet Challenges Anonymously	17	18 Authentication systems Readings Orca: Blocklisting in Sender-Anonymous Messaging True2F: Backdoor-resistant authentication tokens	19
22	23 Cryptographic attacks Readings Mining Your Ps and Qs: Detection of Widespread Weak Keys in Network Devices Lucky Thirteen: Breaking the TLS and DTLS Record Protocols	24	25 Cryptographic attacks Readings Partitioning Oracle Attacks	26
29	30 Zero-knowledge proofs Readings Pinocchio: Nearly Practical Verifiable Computation Zero-Knowledge Middleboxes

October
Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday
		01	02 Cryptocurrencies Readings Bitcoin A Fistful of Bitcoins: Characterizing Payments Among Men with No Names	03
06	07 Well-Being Day (No Class)	08	09 Course project proposals	10
13	14 Course project proposals	15	16 Fall Break (No Class)	17
20	21 Cryptocurrencies Readings Zerocash: Decentralized Anonymous Payments from Bitcoin Algorand: Scaling Byzantine Agreements for Cryptocurrencies	22	23 Voting Readings Untraceable Electronic Mail, Return Addresses, and Digital Pseudonyms Helios: Web-based Open-Audit Voting	24
27	28 Encrypted data computation Readings Flamingo: Multi-Round Single-Server Secure Aggregation with Applications to Private Federated Learning Prio: Private, Robust, and Scalable Computation of Aggregate Statistics	29	30 Encrypted data computation Readings Senate: A Maliciously-Secure MPC Platform for Collaborative Analytics A Decentralized and Encrypted National Gun Registry	31

November/December
Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday
03	04 Private information retrieval Readings Private Information Retrieval	05	06 Private information retrieval Readings One Server for the Price of Two: Simple and Fast Single-Server Private Information Retrieval	07
10	11 Private information retrieval Readings Authenticated private information retrieval VeriSimplePIR: Verifiability in SimplePIR at No Online Cost for Honest Servers	12	13 Private information retrieval Readings Private Blocklist Lookups with Checklist AdVeil: A Private Targeted Advertising Ecosystem	14
17	18 Oblivious RAM Readings Path ORAM Oblix: An Efficient Oblivious Search Index	19	20 Final presentations	21
24	25 Final presentations	26	27 Thanksgiving Break (No Class)	28
Dec 01	Dec 02 Final presentations