6.875/18.425  Cryptography & Cryptanalysis

Hi 6.875,

Tomorrow's class will have two parts:
1)  We'll finish up the multiparty computation result from last time.
2)  Boaz Barak from Microsoft Research will talk about:

Zero Knowledge and Nuclear Disarmament

ABSTRACT:
I'll describe a physical implementation of zero knowledge proofs whose
goal is to verify that two physical objects are identical, without
revealing any information about them. Our motivation is the task of
verifying that an about-to-be-dismantled nuclear warhead is authentic
without revealing its classified design. This is one of the technical
hurdles that arises in implementing nuclear disarmament.

Joint work with Alex Glaser and Robert Goldston from Princeton
University and the Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory.

Hi 6.875,

A few things: 

1)  If you're registered for credit, please double-check the scribe note schedule on the website (near the bottom of the Materials page) to make sure your username is there.  If it's not, please let the TAs know immediately--scribing is part of your grade!

2)  A few more things have been posted, including lecture slides from last week's lectures. 

3)  For those of you who wanted to hear someone other than me talk about IBE, Dan Boneh (a professor at Stanford whose name should be familiar to those of you who came to Lecture 17....) is giving a talk on Wednesday at 4pm at Microsoft Research (just up the road from MIT), entitled "Identity-Based Encryption:  Past, Present, and Future".  More info is here:  http://research.microsoft.com/en-us/labs/newengland/speakers/theory.aspx

Hi 6.875,

Problem Set 5 has been posted.  It is due Thursday, May 3.

Also, drop date is this coming Thursday (April 26).  If you no longer intend to take 6.875 for credit, we'd appreciate it if you let the TAs know. 

(If you haven't yet picked up your graded Problem Set 3, please do so at lecture on Tuesday.)