Contemporary Cryptology: The Science of Information Integrity [Hardcover]

Gustavus J. Simmons (Editor)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0879422777 | ISBN-13: 978-0879422776 | Publication Date: September 1991

The field of cryptography has experienced an unprecedented development in the past decade and the contributors to this book have been in the forefront of these developments. In an information-intensive society, it is essential to devise means to accomplish, with information alone, every function that it has been possible to achieve in the past with documents, personal control, and legal protocols (secrecy, signatures, witnessing, dating, certification of receipt and/or origination). This volume focuses on all these needs, covering all aspects of the science of information integrity, with an emphasis on the cryptographic elements of the subject.

In addition to being an introductory guide and survey of all the latest developments, this book provides the engineer and scientist with algorithms, protocols, and applications. Of interest to computer scientists, communications engineers, data management specialists, cryptographers, mathematicians, security specialists, network engineers.

--This text refers to the Paperback edition.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Contemporary Cryptology: The Science of Information Integrity is a compilation of essays on cryptography that is organized around central topics within the field of encryption over the last two decades. The text collects influential essays by pioneers in the field, including Whitfield Diffie, a trailblazer of public key cryptography.

The book includes sections on the Data Encryption Standard (DES), digital signatures, authentication, protocols, and cryptanalysis or code breaking. Of particular interest is the chapter on smart cards, which explores the possibilities of hardware and software for digital cash and other applications. As a document of recent research in the field, this text will prove useful for the general reader as well as the specialist. Several essays present the math behind cryptographic applications, but there is much to mine here for the curious reader. Contemporary Cryptology also includes several bibliographies on the subject of cryptography and related fields.

From the Back Cover

Contemporary Cryptology The Science of Information Integrity The field of cryptography has experienced an unprecedented development in the past decade and the contributors to this book have been in the forefront of these developments. In an information-intensive society, it is essential to devise means to accomplish, with information alone, every function that it has been possible to achieve in the past with documents, personal control, and legal protocols (secrecy, signatures, witnessing, dating, certification of receipt and/or origination). This volume focuses on all these needs, covering all aspects of the science of information integrity, with an emphasis on the cryptographic elements of the subject. In addition to being an introductory guide and survey of all the latest developments, this book provides the engineer and scientist with algorithms, protocols, and applications. Of interest to computer scientists, communications engineers, data management specialists, cryptographers, mathematicians, security specialists, network engineers. Also of Interest Advances in Adaptive Control Edited by Kumpati S. Narendra, Romeo Ortega, and Peter Dorato Sponsored by the IEEE Control Systems Society With the advent of more and more sophisticated computers, complex control strategies, such as adaptive control, are becoming more prevalent. This volume provides an in-depth review of recent applications reported at major control conferences. Some of these developments are in established areas of adaptive control, while others represent theoretical breakthrough and novel applications. Much of this material does not appear elsewhere or is difficult to access. Of interest to engineers working in process control, flight control, robotics, automobile control, space control applications, manufacturing systems. 1991 ISBN 0-87942-278-5 Order # PC0272-5 Hardcover 424 pp Information Technology for Command and Control Methods and Tools for Systems Development and Evaluation Edited by Stephen J. Andriole and Stanley M. Halpin Sponsored by the IEEE Systems, Man, and Cybernetics Society The C² marketplace is $40 billion annually. This is the only book to zero in on the process by which C² decisions and information system requirements are identified, modeled, and validated. It provides the essentials for building systems that help allocate resources, make plans, and monitor environments. Leveraging specific tools and techniques to multiple areas of application, global networking, and interactive decision-making support systems, the role of artificial intelligence in drawing inferences and avoiding mistakes, and the uses of user-computer interface technology are just some of the many components of C² presented in this book. Of interest to all information systems professionals, computer scientists, human factors professionals, and all command and control personnel. 1991 ISBN 0-87942-270-X Order # PC0264-2 Hardcover 584 pp --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 592 pages
• Publisher: Ieee (September 1991)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0879422777
• ISBN-13: 978-0879422776
• Product Dimensions: 10.1 x 6.9 x 1.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,798,609 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great for serious readers with a suitable background, August 25, 2001

By 

Victor A. Vyssotsky "mandvav" (Orleans, MA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Contemporary Cryptology: The Science of Information Integrity (Paperback)

Unlike most books on cryptology, this one tries to give a broad overview not only of conventional ciphers and cryptanalysis, but also of authentication, protocols, zero-knowledge proofs and other aspects of modern cryptology. It is slightly out of date, having been published in 1993, but not seriously so. The editor, Gus Simmons, is a heavyweight researcher who worked for many years at Sandia Labs on such topics as public key ciphers and their uses and weaknesses, and cryptologic methods for ensuring against cheating in certain types of treaties. He wrote the article on cryptology for the 16th edition of the Encyclopedia Britannica. All the contributors are also experts in their specialties. The resulting book requires considerable knowledge of math, computer science and cryptology to understand fully, but it is well worth reading for those who can wade through it. The 14 chapters will not all be equally interesting to all readers; to me, for example, Joan Feigenbaum's "Overview of Interactive Proof Systems and Zero-Knowledge", the chapter on "Cryptanalysis: A Survey of Recent Results" by E. F. Brickell and Andrew Odlyzko, and "Protocol Failures in Cryptosystems" by J. H. Moore, are particularly interesting because they gave me a coherent picture of three topics in which I had encountered various results and had fragmentary knowledge. Other readers may have different favorites, but there's something here for almost anyone. My only criticism is that the chapter on "The Data Encryption Standard: Past and Future" by Miles Smid and Dennis Branstad, is disingenuous, and seems to me misleading in some respects. For example, it fails to mention several features of the DES standard itself, and it fails to point out the most serious vulnerability of software implementations of DES (which should be implemented in hardware to be secure, as the standard notes.) The chapter also fuzzes up the role of NSA in dealing with both IBM and NBS. In particular, it doesn't make clear that NSA found a weakness in IBM's original "Lucifer" cipher, and guided IBM in removing the weakness. Nor does it even hint that NBS, which was supposedly the chooser and promulgator of the DES standard, was in no position to exercise independent judgment on the matter; the chief technical consultant to NBS about DES was Arthur J. Levenson, who although nominally retired from NSA at the time, could still be most easily reached in his NSA office at Fort Meade, not at NBS, and not at IBM's Federal Systems Division, where he had nominally gone after "retiring" from NSA. This is not a criticism of DES, which is a remarkably good cipher; it is a grumble that almost 20 years after the events described in this chapter, the authors still felt it necessary to fuzz up the history of the topic, which at least Dennis Branstad was intimately familiar with. Except for this one complaint, I find the entire book admirable.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Review from an undergraduate student., March 28, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Contemporary Cryptology: The Science of Information Integrity (Paperback)

This book is for anybody interested in cryptography, with some background in classical algebra, or more specifically number theory. It is a collection of papers written by well known individuals in the crytography field, among whom are Diffie, Simmons, and Odlyzko.

The first section of the book, which includes the first five papers, introduces the history of cryptography and addresses isues which are which still persist like asymmetric key cryptography and DES/AES.

The following sections address issues which are are only now coming to public attention. With the emergence of e-commerce worries of privacy, authentication, and non-repudiation strikes fear into the heart of the vulnerable customer. However, these ideas are long in contemplation and have been for almost a decade. These papers acknowledge the difficulties which lie ahead.

As an undergraduate student I liked this book for its mixture of information. The history component is eye opening and interesting, while discussions of the future are at times scary. Although the mathematics in this book were not trivial, with study they can become fascinating. This book is a true learning experience, especially in this day and age.