Welcome to "An introduction to cryptography"

Welcome to the thrilling world of cryptography! Cryptography is the exciting world of secret codes and encrypted messages. It’s like a puzzle that keeps your mind sharp and your information secure.

In today’s digital age, the importance of cryptography cannot be overstated: from protecting our online communications to securing our financial transactions, cryptography is at the heart of much modern technology. So, if you’re looking for a thrilling and challenging field to explore, cryptography is the way to go.

Let’s dive in and discover the mathematical secrets of the cryptic world!

How the course will work

• The course is divided into two weeks.
• Each week there will be two activities, with a range of different tasks for you to complete at your own pace.
• The course is not facilitated, but is designed to support peer learning through online discussions.
• There will be a range of quizzes, reading sections, videos, and chances for you to discuss questions with other learners; this can be a great way of getting different viewpoints and ideas, so do use these chances to network with your peers and share your ideas!

Gain your certificate and evidence your learning

At the end of Week 2 is a test. You can take this test as many times as you like.

You need to complete 90% of the steps in the course and achieve 70% or more in the test in order to be eligible for a Certificate of Achievement. This personalised Certificate of Achievement and transcript detail the syllabus and learning outcomes, as well as your end of course test score. This provides ideal evidence of your interest in and understanding of this subject. The certificate comes in both printable and digital formats, so you can easily add it to your portfolio, CV or LinkedIn profile.

This course is part of the Click Start collection of short courses provided by the University of Leeds. Click Start is a nationwide training programme developed by the Institute of Coding (IoC), supported by a consortium of industry leaders, educators, and outreach providers, and funded by Nominet. Click Start aims to diversify the tech industry and address the UK’s digital skills gap.

This course is part of the Click Start collection of short courses provided by the University of Leeds. Click Start is a nationwide training programme developed by the Institute of Coding (IoC), supported by a consortium of industry leaders, educators, and outreach providers, and funded by Nominet. Click Start aims to diversify the tech industry and address the UK’s digital skills gap.

Learning outcomes

By the end of Week 1, you will be able to:

• Describe what cryptography is
• Apply simple ciphers to encrypt and decrypt messages
• Describe how a number of simple ciphers work.

By the end of Week 2, you will be able to:

• Apply modern ciphers to encrypt and decrypt messages
• Explain the concepts of private key and public key cryptography
• Explain what end-to-end encryption is and where it is used
• Explain how digital signatures can be used to prove the authenticity of a message.

You can revisit steps as you progress through the course so that you feel confident you’re meeting the learning outcomes. As you are working through the steps and activities, you might want to refer back to this step to check your progress against the learning outcomes.

About the maths in this course

You may know that maths is at the heart of computing science subjects so we’ll be doing some in this course, to give you an idea of the kinds of maths used in modern cryptography. We have made the exercises for these parts of the course optional, as you are not expected to know the maths, but for those of you that like a maths challenge, do give them a go! (You do not need to know the maths to pass the assignment and get your certificate) .

Glossary

As you complete the course you may come across terms that require further explanation. To help with this, there is a Glossary that you can view and refer to at any point in the course.

Next steps

Now that you’ve found out about the course, move to the next step where you can introduce yourself to your fellow learners.