Modern Cryptography: Applied Mathematics for Encryption and Informanion Security (2016)

Introduction

There are a number of cryptography books on the market today. Many are very well written. I would know; I have an extensive cryptography library and have read most of the books on the market. However, most of these books suffer from one common issue: they assume the reader has a solid mathematical background and approach cryptography from that perspective. It is also sometimes the case that cryptography authors write as if they were speaking to experienced cryptographers, or at least to those with a basic working knowledge.

This book was designed to bring cryptography to the general security community. You need not have any mathematics background beyond basic secondary school algebra. The book will cover the math you need. Furthermore, the book includes chapters on topics rarely covered in cryptography texts: cryptographic backdoors, military cryptography, and applied cryptography.

This book makes an excellent Introduction to Cryptography textbook for students taking a first course in cryptography. It is also appropriate for computer security professionals who wish to self-study and gain a working knowledge of cryptography. If you are reading this as self-study, pause at the end of each chapter, use the review questions, and ensure that you fully mastered the critical topics before proceeding.

The book is really a journey through cryptography, starting with historical cryptography and then moving into the mathematical foundations necessary to understand modern cryptography. The book then moves on to the symmetric and asymmetric algorithms used today. It also includes chapters on Secure Sockets Layer (SSL), cryptanalysis, military applications for cryptography, and the future of cryptography.

The book is replete with links to external sources where you can get additional information, particularly in the chapters on mathematics and number theory. Each chapter ends with a series of questions to test your knowledge. The Appendix includes a set of tutorials for using some cryptography tools. These make excellent labs if this book is used as a textbook. Also, instructors and professors can download slides from the publisher. The accompanying slides make this an excellent choice for teaching an introductory cryptography course.