3.4 and 3.5, due Monday October 1st

1. Nothing difficult at all in this section:) I've seen it all before and done several assignments on these sections.

2. I love knowing how to use modular exponentiation. It makes life soo much easier! Also, I think it's neat how many things from 371 carry over to cryptography.

Blog due Friday September 28

Which topics and ideas do you think are the most important out of those we have studied?
Conceptually, I think the most important are DES, affine and vigenere ciphers, and possibly Hill ciphers

What kinds of questions do you expect to see on the exam?
Ones similar to those on the homework. I at least hope to have the formulas given for me for stuff like block ciphers though. I could memorize but at least it would be nice to know which encryption styles we needed to have memorized before the test.

What do you need to work on understanding better before the exam?
Probably Hill ciphers. If there will be any proofs on the test, definitely those:)

Blog due Wednesday September 26th

I missed this one.

Q & A, due Monday September 24

How long have you spent on the homework assignments?
The first ones weren't too bad; but the last one took eight or nine hours because I got hung up on a few problems like four and five.

Did lecture and the reading prepare you for them?
The decryption process, definitely. There couldn't have been better teaching to prepare for that part. I felt the proofs could have had more focus in class or less focus on the homework. (I've never been good at proofs though, and most people probably didn't have an issue with them)

What has contributed most to your learning in this class thus far?
The step by step process of going through encrypting and decrypting as well as showing us how to use technology to solve them easier.

What do you think would help you learn more effectively or make the class better for you? (This can be feedback for me, or goals for yourself.)
If I did more practice problems from the book, I would be able to solidify processes better.

3.11, due Friday September 21st

1. The hard part for me is why RIjdaenl's technique has 9 bits in it. I was under the impression that it's a lot easier to store bits in factors of 2(i.e. 2^3 bits=byte, 2^6=64 bits, used in DES). Also how can that be represented by GF(2^8)?

2. I best liked this section as I was reading about XORing and division in groups. It reminded me of some of the material we covered in Math 371.

4.5-4.8, due September 19th

1. The trickiest part of the reading for me was understanding the differences between so many modes. The section on Output Feedback clicked the least of all of them.

2.  The concept of salt in password security is very interesting to me. I don't quite know how 4096 of the same word are stored but it seemed kind of cool. Also, I liked reading about Breaking DES and the history behind it.

2.9-2.11, due Friday September 14

1. I really enjoyed the idea of a one-time pad, although it's drawbacks are quite obvious. I also liked how LFSR is in binary and the pseudo-random bit generator concept.

2. What I found most difficult was the LFSR method of encrypting. Not that it is good for speed and not security but the actual method of encryption/decryption.