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Analyzing Error Rates in Cryptological Programming Assignments

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Information Security Education - Adapting to the Fourth Industrial Revolution (WISE 2022)

Part of the book series: IFIP Advances in Information and Communication Technology ((IFIPAICT,volume 650))

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Abstract

Understanding cryptological primitives like encryption, hashing, signatures, and certificates is a central skill when working as an IT security professional or software developer but it is also a major educational challenge. The paper presents a study which measures and compares error rates in cryptological programming assignments. Over a ten-week period, 20 students solved 20 cryptological Java programming assignments checked by 350 tests that were automatically verified using a grader system. The error rate in ~60.000 test results is analyzed: Students made fewer errors in substitutions than transposition ciphers, symmetric ciphers rank lower than asymmetric ones, constructor, exception and padding tests appear easier to solve than signing and its verification. Asymmetric encryption has lower error rates than signing. A discussion of the findings, limitations, and possible future improvements concludes the paper. The approach allows identifying and measuring “hard” and “easy” cryptological assignments in order to improve teaching, which is desirable from an educational perspective.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Trier University of Applied Sciences, Trier, Germany

    Konstantin Knorr

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  1. Konstantin Knorr
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Correspondence to Konstantin Knorr .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. North-West University, Potchefstroom, South Africa

    Lynette Drevin

  2. National Research Nuclear University, Moscow, Russia

    Natalia Miloslavskaya

  3. University of Johannesburg, Johannesburg, South Africa

    Wai Sze Leung

  4. University of Johannesburg, Johannesburg, South Africa

    Suné von Solms

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Knorr, K. (2022). Analyzing Error Rates in Cryptological Programming Assignments. In: Drevin, L., Miloslavskaya, N., Leung, W.S., von Solms, S. (eds) Information Security Education - Adapting to the Fourth Industrial Revolution. WISE 2022. IFIP Advances in Information and Communication Technology, vol 650. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-08172-9_1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-08172-9_1

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-031-08171-2

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-031-08172-9

  • eBook Packages: Computer ScienceComputer Science (R0)

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