Customer Reviews

Personal Encryption Clearly Explained

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

 

 

This isnt a bad book despite the 3 stars I've given it. The first part of the book describes the theory and aspects of cryptography. I felt it was rather waffly and not precise enough. I wanted more diagrams and more stuff like Appendix A in the early chapters. By page 100 I felt the knowledge I had learnt could have been dealt with in 10 pages.

The 2nd half of the book is quite good. Lots of walk throughs with the likes of verisign (getting a digital id) and emailing with PGP. However, the book assumes you already have the software, eg PGP and I had to refer to Appendix B to find where to download software.

Many years ago, when atomic testing was in full swing in the New Mexico desert, The New Yorker ran a cartoon showing two indians exchanging smoke signals when a giant mushroom cloud appeared over the horizon. The caption was one of the indians saying, "I wish I had said that!".

I felt that way when I read PERSONAL ENCRYPTION. I found it a most enjoyable and useful treatment of a non-trivial subject.

As a former IBM-er (I have been retired for many years, living in Southern Spain) I had the pleasure twenty years ago, when working at the Palo Alto Scientific Center, to meet Marty Hellman who gave us a few seminars on his work in Public Key Encryption. However, I found the subject matter reminiscent of my earlier experience with Norbert Weiner's "Yellow Peril" (Interpolation, Extrapolation, and Smoothing of Stationary Time Series), viz., I could follow it all and nod me head in agreement but, a week later, if I tried to explain the fundamentals to a friend at a cocktail party, I would get my tongue twisted around my eye teeth and couldn't see what I was saying. Since reading this book I can't wait for someone to ask about Public Key Encryption, although I must admit the chance of that happening here in Mojacar, Almeria is vanishingly small.

How private are your Internet communications? Would you like an explanation of electronic encryption technology? You may want to determine how much information you are willing to give away - and how much to protect..

The first half of the book is a good explanation of encryption basics that clearly details theory and mechanics. The second half demonstrates useful Internet protection schemes.