Customer Reviews

Introduction to Cryptography: Principles and Applications (Information Security and Cryptography)

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This is a very good book about cryptography. Due to the excellent selection of material,
it is well suited as an introduction to modern cryptography,
as a basis for courses or for self-education.
Numerous exercises help the reader to deepen his learning of the concepts.
Although the presentation is compact, the algorithms are described with the necessary mathematical
precision. Because the mathematical background is developed in full in the appendix,
only a moderate level of mathematical knowledge is required.

Methods of asymmetrical encryption and the generation of electronic signatures
(RSA, EIGamal, DAS and Rabin) are presented in detail. In the section on cryptographic protocols,
you can learn, e.g., how to establish a secret key over a public channel, such as the Internet.
Bit commitments, zero-knowledge, the sharing of secrets, blind signatures and the use of these
techniques in electronic elections or digital cash are described.

The second part of the book is an introduction to basic security questions in cryptographic systems.
What is security? Which assumptions are made? What can we determine from these assumptions?
Starting with Shannon's classic definition of security,
important security features of modern cryptographic schemes are explained.
The theory of one-way functions,
hard-core bits, cryptographically secure pseudorandom sequences, provably secure encryption
algorithms, hash functions and
provably secure digital signatures are developed with illustrative examples.

The good thing about this book is the appendix which helps beginners along, and the clear organization.

The bad things however are:

(1) the imbalance between materials on symmetric-key and asymmetric-key cryptosystems;

(2) the omission of Elliptic Curve Cryptosystem.