Beginning Cryptography with Java (Paperback)

by David Hook (Author)
Key Phrases: Try It Out, Bouncy Castle, Test Certificate (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description
Beginning Cryptography with Java

While cryptography can still be a controversial topic in the programming community, Java has weathered that storm and provides a rich set of APIs that allow you, the developer, to effectively include cryptography in applications-if you know how.

This book teaches you how. Chapters one through five cover the architecture of the JCE and JCA, symmetric and asymmetric key encryption in Java, message authentication codes, and how to create Java implementations with the API provided by the Bouncy Castle ASN.1 packages, all with plenty of examples. Building on that foundation, the second half of the book takes you into higher-level topics, enabling you to create and implement secure Java applications and make use of standard protocols such as CMS, SSL, and S/MIME.

What you will learn from this book

• How to understand and use JCE, JCA, and the JSSE for encryption and authentication
• The ways in which padding mechanisms work in ciphers and how to spot and fix typical errors
• An understanding of how authentication mechanisms are implemented in Java and why they are used
• Methods for describing cryptographic objects with ASN.1
• How to create certificate revocation lists and use the Online Certificate Status Protocol (OCSP)
• Real-world Web solutions using Bouncy Castle APIs

Who this book is for

This book is for Java developers who want to use cryptography in their applications or to understand how cryptography is being used in Java applications. Knowledge of the Java language is necessary, but you need not be familiar with any of the APIs discussed.

Wrox Beginning guides are crafted to make learning programming languages and technologies easier than you think, providing a structured, tutorial format that will guide you through all the techniques involved.

From the Back Cover
Beginning Cryptography with Java

While cryptography can still be a controversial topic in the programming community, Java has weathered that storm and provides a rich set of APIs that allow you, the developer, to effectively include cryptography in applications—if you know how.

This book teaches you how. Chapters one through five cover the architecture of the JCE and JCA, symmetric and asymmetric key encryption in Java, message authentication codes, and how to create Java implementations with the API provided by the Bouncy Castle ASN.1 packages, all with plenty of examples. Building on that foundation, the second half of the book takes you into higher-level topics, enabling you to create and implement secure Java applications and make use of standard protocols such as CMS, SSL, and S/MIME.

What you will learn from this book

• How to understand and use JCE, JCA, and the JSSE for encryption and authentication
• The ways in which padding mechanisms work in ciphers and how to spot and fix typical errors
• An understanding of how authentication mechanisms are implemented in Java and why they are used
• Methods for describing cryptographic objects with ASN.1
• How to create certificate revocation lists and use the Online Certificate Status Protocol (OCSP)
• Real-world Web solutions using Bouncy Castle APIs

Who this book is for

This book is for Java developers who want to use cryptography in their applications or to understand how cryptography is being used in Java applications. Knowledge of the Java language is necessary, but you need not be familiar with any of the APIs discussed.

Wrox Beginning guides are crafted to make learning programming languages and technologies easier than you think, providing a structured, tutorial format that will guide you through all the techniques involved.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 480 pages
• Publisher: Wrox (August 19, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0764596330
• ISBN-13: 978-0764596339
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 7.3 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.7 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #219,015 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

  Popular in these categories: (What's this?)

  #29 in	Books > Computers & Internet > Programming > Algorithms > Cryptography
  #34 in	Books > Computers & Internet > Programming > Java > Beginner's Guides

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars How to Incorporate Encryption into your Programs, November 8, 2005

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

Cryptography is still a delicate issue with a lot of people. There are those, especially in certain law enforcement agencies, who believe that access to stong encryption should not be allowed in the hands of the general public. Indeed, there are export regulations that define encryption technology as munitions. ==At the other end of the scale, there is the simple fact that without secure data transmission, web based electronic commerce would simply be impossible.

This book is on the use of standard Java encryption libraries. This book is written for people who are Java developers and are trying to make use of cryptography in their applications. It presumes that you are familiar with the Java language, but it does not assume you have any familiarity with the encryption APIs. The book covers the recent updates in the security APIs with J2SE 5.0.

This book is very good from the programming point of view, it does not have a lot of history or the background technology of how encryption is done.

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Very hands-on, April 25, 2006

By	reviewer "security architect" (san jose, ca) - See all my reviews

Whether it is complete or not (of course, it is not), I would challenge anyone to point at a single alternative book covering Java cryptography at a greater level of details. The style is clear, coverage of ASN.1 is very helpful, and selection of BouncyCastle open source cryptoprovider is the most natural one. Lots more of details and code samples can be found in Bouncy Castle javadocs, but to navigate them without conceptual understanding of Java security in general and BouncyCastle implementation in particular, gained from the book like this one, would be a nightmare.

"Inside Java 2 Platform Security: Architecture, API Design, and Implementation (2nd Edition)" would be another book to recommend, for general overview of Java Security Platform, and, also, to make sense of Java Cryptography Extension (JCE) APIs standardizing access to cryptoproviders' (such as BouncyCastle) libraries. But, of course, the two books have very little overlap.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars a really useful one, February 18, 2008

By	Eduardo Galan Herrero (Madrid, Spain) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This book is the best choice if you need to initiate in the use of java crypto API (as its title claims) and it informs extensively about Bouncy Castle crypto API (which I also recommend).

Definitely a good book.