A comparison of different methods of instruction in cryptography

Abstract

Cryptography is the foundation on which information and cyber security is built. As Mark Stamp has written, "cryptography or 'secret codes' are a fundamental information security tool." [6] Without the ability to encrypt and decrypt messages or data, the fundamental characteristic of confidentiality, which is the prevention of "unauthorized reading of information," [6] is lost. This could cause the potential exposure of trusted information. Given the importance of this discipline, teaching students the basics of cryptography should be an integral part of any curriculum in information and cyber security. For years students have been taught to perform cryptographic exercises by hand performing paper-and-pencil exercises, or by writing programs in a computer language to perform the cryptographic methods. Today, open-source GUI software exists that can teach students the methods of encrypting and decrypting messages. Consequently, it is of value to measure the effectiveness of teaching cryptography using paper-and-pencil exercises versus using software with a GUI interface.