Abstract

We shall talk about the basics of two topics:

1. Cryptography ¾ the making and breaking of secret codes. Both secret-key ("classical") systems and public-key ("modern") systems will be considered.

2. Error-correcting codes, which are capable of "self-repairing" in the event of data corruption. We shall look at how data redundancy is exploited in such codes to achieve this.

If time permits, we shall also talk about the deciphering of ancient scripts.