Devoted to information security, this volume begins with a short course
on cryptography, mainly based on lectures given by Rudolf Ahlswede at
the University of Bielefeld in the mid 1990s. It was the second of his
cycle of lectures on information theory which opened with an
introductory course on basic coding theorems, as covered in Volume 1 of
this series. In this third volume, Shannon's historical work on secrecy
systems is detailed, followed by an introduction to an
information-theoretic model of wiretap channels, and such important
concepts as homophonic coding and authentication. Once the theoretical
arguments have been presented, comprehensive technical details of AES
are given. Furthermore, a short introduction to the history of
public-key cryptology, RSA and El Gamal cryptosystems is provided,
followed by a look at the basic theory of elliptic curves, and
algorithms for efficient addition in elliptic curves. Lastly, the
important topic of "oblivious transfer" is discussed, which is strongly
connected to the privacy problem in communication. Today, the importance
of this problem is rapidly increasing, and further research and
practical realizations are greatly anticipated.
This is the third of several volumes serving as the collected
documentation of Rudolf Ahlswede's lectures on information theory. Each
volume includes comments from an invited well-known expert. In the
supplement to the present volume, Rüdiger Reischuk contributes his
insights.
Classical information processing concerns the main tasks of gaining
knowledge and the storage, transmission and hiding of data. The first
task is the prime goal of Statistics. For transmission and hiding data,
Shannon developed an impressive mathematical theory called Information
Theory, which he based on probabilistic models. The theory largely
involves the concept of codes with small error probabilities in spite of
noise in the transmission, which is modeled by channels. The lectures
presented in this work are suitable for graduate students in
Mathematics, and also for those working in Theoretical Computer Science,
Physics, and Electrical Engineering with a background in basic
Mathematics. The lectures can be used as the basis for courses or to
supplement courses in many ways. Ph.D. students will also find research
problems, often with conjectures, that offer potential subjects for a
thesis. More advanced researchers may find questions which form the
basis of entire research programs.
