Customer Reviews

Introduction to Cryptography (Undergraduate Texts in Mathematics)

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

Buchmann's text provides an excellect introduction to cryptography for those who are comfortable with mathematical rigour, and have some knowledge of number theory. Buchmann does provide a review for each of the number theoretic concepts he introduces throughout the text. However, one who is unfamiliar with number theory and not comfortable with learning by proofs might get lost. The other problem with the text is its brevity. This might be suitable for a class on cryptograpy, but it proves quite detremental to self-study. The brevity is especially problematic in the section dealing with Elliptic Curve Crypto (3 and 1/2 pages) Overall, I would recommend this book to anyone who is comfortable with rigour, and doesn't mind brevity.

This book should not be adopted as a textbook for a course in cryptography. It demonstrates little to no copy editing. For example, the text switches from English to German within the same sentence. This book contains countless errors which are not even reported in the errata. Further, the book is terse to the point of not supporting the students. It presumes advanced knowledge of algebra which is not explained in the text itself. This is true when it discusses irreducible polynomials, polynomial division, and its very terse segment on Galois Theory in an early chapter.

I adopted this text for my course based in part on prior Amazon recommendations and the general reputation of the Springer UTM series. Please, do not adopt this book as a textbook unless and until Springer performs a major rewrite. My students impressions of this textbook were confirmed not only by myself, but by one of my colleagues in the department as well. This experience with this book was in a 600 level graduate course populated by both mathematics graduate students and computer science graduate students. All students are profoundly unhappy with this text.

This book is horrible.
The text is ugly, some definitions are strange (for example, the author defines O-notation for complexity in a totally non-standard and non-intuitive way) and the reading the book is a pain.

Please use another Cryptography book. Good examples are Mao's Modern Cryptography: Theory and Practice) and Stinson's Cryptography: Theory and Practice for example. There are also the Handbook of Applied Cryptography and Foundations of Cryptography, volumes one and two.

It's a nice reference book with fun activities, but it was abandoned after awhile. I liked the structure of the book, and the topics it covered. But I wouldn't use this without a professor or someone to work with. Definitely good for practicing and for use with other material.

Very readable. If you are new to crypto,
this is the book for you.
Very well written.