Midterm Questions, due Friday, November 12

• Which topics and ideas do you think are the most important out of those we have studied?

Understanding the Chinese Remainder Theorem is important for this class and for many other math classes. RSA was the largest section that we studied since the last midterm, and so we should really know and understand RSA and the factoring methods. Square roots were also very important to understand and implement for factorization.

• What kinds of questions do you expect to see on the exam?

Chinese Remainder Theorem problems, Probability for Birthday Attack, The Pohlig-Hellman Algorithm (Possibly), the Concepts relating to RSA and factoring large n.

• What do you need to work on understanding better before the exam?

Factoring methods are things that I certainly have to go over and understand. I need to work on discrete logarithms and know to find them using the Pohlig-Hellman Algorithm. I need to make sure that I understand and can apply the concepts from ElGamal, hash functions, and digital signatures.

• Are there topics you are especially interested in studying during the rest of the semester? What are they?

I have heard of Elliptical Curves, and I'm glad that we will be going over them briefly so I at least have a general understanding of what they are and what they possibly are used for.