Contemporary Cryptography (Artech House Computer Security Library) [Hardcover]

Rolf Oppliger (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 1580536425 | ISBN-13: 978-1580536424 | Publication Date: April 30, 2005

A smart choice for both novice and experienced professionals looking to broaden their knowledge of contemporary cryptography, this comprehensive resource puts all aspects of this important topic into perspective. Unlike other books on the market that are either limited in scope or very theoretical, This unique resource delivers a thorough introduction to the current state-of-the-art in modern cryptography, offering a practical understanding of essential tools and applications to help professionals with their daily work. The book also includes complete coverage of the underpinnings and basic principles of cryptography to help practitioners and students fully master the material.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Rolf Oppliger is the founder and owner of eSECURITY Technologies, works for the Swiss federal administration, and teaches at the University of Zurich. He is also the author of Security Technologies for the World Wide Web, Second Edition, Internet and Intranet Security, Second Edition and Secure Messaging with PGP and S/MIME (Artech House, 2003, 2002, 2001) among other titles.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 510 pages
• Publisher: Artech House Publishers (April 30, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1580536425
• ISBN-13: 978-1580536424
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.6 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.8 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,765,081 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Rolf Oppliger studied computer science, mathematics, and economics at the University of Berne, Switzerland, where he received M.Sc. and Ph.D. degrees in computer science in 1991 and 1993, respectively. In 1999, he received the venia legendi for computer science, and in 2007 he was appointed adjunct professor at the University of Zürich, Switzerland. The focus of his professional activities is information technology (IT) security in general, and network security in particular. He has authored more than ten books, including, for example, Contemporary Cryptography (Artech House, 2005) and SSL and TLS: Theory and Practice (Artech House, 2009), frequently speaks at security-related conferences, and regularly publishes papers and articles in scientific magazines and journals. He's the founder and owner of eSECURITY Technologies Rolf Oppliger (http://www.esecurity.ch), works for the Swiss Federal Strategy Unit for Information Technology (FSUIT), teaches at the University of Zürich, and serves as editor for the Artech House information security and privacy (former computer security) series. He is a senior member of the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM), and a member of the IEEE Computer Society and the International Association for Cryptologic Research (IACR). He also served as vice-chair of the IFIP TC 11 working group on network security.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Mix of Theory and Implementation, June 10, 2005

By 

John Matlock "Gunny" (Winnemucca, NV) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Contemporary Cryptography (Artech House Computer Security Library) (Hardcover)

Cryptography has become one of the basic enabling technologies of the internet as we know it today. Without the ability to transport such private information as credit card information, none of the commerce oriented sites from Amazon or EBay, none of the porn sites could exist. The net simply wouldn't be as we know it today.

Much of the stories that we know of cryptology have to do with the breaking of the German Enigma or the Japanese codes from World War II. These codes would be trivial to break today. Faster more powerful computers, significant advances in the mathematical theory and techniques have made today's cryptography an entirely different animal.

Dr. Oppliger's book draws a balance between the computer scientist approach who is looking to implement a secure communications protocol, and the mathematician who is interested in the theoretical concepts. This book does not presume to cover any of the many (sometimes conflicting) patent claims, nor the terribly confusing export regulations that are changing even faster than the cryptologic techniques.

This is the state of the art in cryptography today at the conceptual level.

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars CRYPTOGRAPY: THE GREAT ENABLER, August 17, 2005

By 

John R. Vacca "Tech Write Independent Reviewer" (Pomeroy, Ohio) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Contemporary Cryptography (Artech House Computer Security Library) (Hardcover)

Cryptography has become an enabling technology to secure the information infrastructures that are being built, using, and counting on in daily life. Author Rolf Oppliger has done an outstanding job of writing this book in a comprehensive and tutorial nature.

Oppliger begins this book by introducing contemporary cryptography at a high level of abstraction. Next, the author briefly introduces and provides some preliminary definitions for the most important representatives of these classes. In addition, the author discusses the aspects of discrete mathematics that are relevant for contemporary cryptography. He also introduces and presents an overview of the basic principles of probability theory as far as they are relevant for information theory and contemporary cryptography. Then, he continues with a brief discussion of the basic principles and results of information theory. The author then discusses the fundamentals and results for complexity theory. Next, he elaborates on one-way functions; cryptographic hash functions; random bit generators; symmetric encryption systems; MACs and systems to compute and verify MACs; and, pseudorandom bit generators (PRBGs). Next, he thoroughly introduces pseudorandom functions, and discusses the constructions on the random oracle model. The author then elaborates on symmetric encryption systems; digital signatures and DSSs; cryptographic protocols that two entities can use to establish a shared secret key; and, entity authentication in general, and authentication protocols that implement a proof by knowledge in particular. Next, he addresses secure multiparty computation (MPC). Then, he elaborates on the key management process. The author then discusses and puts into perspective many cryptographic systems in use today. Finally, he looks at the future of contemporary cryptography.

With the preceding in mind, the author has done an excellent job of showing you how to implement and market some of the cryptographic techniques or systems addressed in this book. Nevertheless, the author cautions the reader that "you must be very cautious and note that the entire field of cryptography is tied up in patents and corresponding patent claims. Consequently, you must make sure that you have an appropriate license or a good lawyer or both."