First-Year Seminars 110YP - Cryptology: How Governments, Institutions and People Protect Their Secrets

Cryptology is the study of secret communication between different groups of people. From ancient Egypt when secret hieroglyphs were used to communicate to today when credit card numbers are encrypted to be transmitted over the internet, cryptology has been a necessary part of human life. In this class we will read and write about some of the famous examples of cryptosystems. We study the mathematics needed for these systems and how these concepts connect to what you studied in high school. Why is division complicated and how can we use raising numbers to high powers and division to encrypt messages? In particular, we will use worksheets and Jupyter notebooks to work with examples of these systems.

Mount Holyoke first-year students only, by placement.