Section 16.2, due Dec 4

1. Difficult. The beginning of the section was relatively easy--we talked a lot about elliptic curves mod $n$ during class. 16.2.1 (number of points on the curve mod $p$) was pretty intuitive, as well as 16.2.2 (discrete logs on these curves). I'd say the most difficult part of the reading was from 16.2.3, where "representing plaintext" is discussed. Basically, we use the plaintext as the x-coordinate, or we tack on bits to the end. Once we find such a point, how do we encrypt it? Giving the y-coordinate? Hmm

2. Interesting. In 16.2.2, it talked about using the same attacks on these discrete logs as the other kind. It was interesting to see that some of the principles still carried over. For instance, Baby Step, Giant Step can be used to find the $k$ such that $kA = B$ (for instance if you know $nA = \infty$, then pick some $N^2 > n$ and calculate $iA$ and $B-jNA$ and look for matches).