Cryptography: Fundamentals and Applications

This lecture covers the fundamentals of cryptography, including shared-algorithm and public-key cryptography, cryptographic hash functions, and key infrastructure. It delves into symmetric and asymmetric encryption, stream and block ciphers, and various modes of operation like ECB, CBC, and CTR. The instructor explains the concepts of threshold secret sharing, one-time pad, and the Diffie-Hellman key exchange. Additionally, the lecture explores elliptic curve cryptography, digital signatures, and the Merkle tree data structure. It also discusses the importance of cryptographic hash functions in ensuring data integrity and authentication, as well as the role of Public Key Infrastructure (PKI) in binding public keys to their owners.