Handbook of Applied Cryptography

A thorough coverage of topics in cryptography is only one of many features which make this book invaluable to computer scientists. While not intended to be a textbook, this handbook includes enough background information to be of use to those with minimal theoretical computer science knowledge. The chapter organization is logical and very modular so that after reading the introductory chapters, one can skip ahead to the chapters of interest with little difficulty.The second chapter provides a concise review of probability theory, information theory, complexity theory, and number theory. This chapter would be helpful to anyone in computer science who already has some discrete math background. For readers with no discrete math background I would recommend first reading "Discrete Mathematics and Its Applications" by Kenneth Rosen, the editor of the series this book belongs to.The coverage of number-theoretic problems in chapter 3 is very easy to follow and provides a handy reference to the average case performance of the best known algorithms for each.The next few chapters are very math-intensive and outline the most common encryption algorithms and standards with examples. The chapter on block ciphers includes a section on classical ciphers and cryptanalysis which, as a sidenote, might be of interest to students of linguistics.The later chapters present protocols for authentication, digital signing, and key management which build on the algorithms of the previous chapters, but can be understood independently.One of the final chapters presents methods of effecient computation which again would be useful to anyone in computer science, not just those who are interested in cryptography.Overall, the development of the topics in the book is complete (although by no means rigorous) and concise, including examples only where necessary. I highly recommend this book to students who want to learn more about cryptography, anyone whose job requires some knowledge of standards for authentication, digital signing, etc., such as internet security, and any computer scientist who has an academic interest in algorithms and their applications.

If you're going to work in the area of Cryptography, you can't afford to neglect this book. We used this in a course, and even though it's a handbook, it doubles up pretty well as a textbook, since it has all the underlying mathematical theory, presented in a clear and concise manner. For sheer breadth and depth of coverage, this book is unmatched in the field. It may not have enough on some topics to satisfy everyone, but then i suspect most such topics were not so prominent in 1996, which is when the book was written. Starting with number theory, it goes on cover pseudorandom bits and sequences, stream and block ciphers, hash functions, and digital signatures, establishment protocols, implementation, patents and standards - you name it, you got it. On the one hand, there's enough theory to make you wonder whether it should be called 'applied', but then it indeed qualifies as implementations are discussed as well. And of course, there's an exhaustive bibliography, with more pointers to the literature than one could possibly follow up. One word of caution, though : it requires hard work. If you want a more 'relaxed' coverage of comparable breadth (but not depth), you can do worse than look up Bruce Schneier's 'Applied Crypography', which is a delightful read, but nowhere as rigorous (read academic) as this one. All in all, this is an indispensable reference for those in the field - rigorous and exhaustive, yet eminently readable. If you still haven't made your mind up, here's one final piece of advice : visit the authors'(rather the book's) website, where you'll get the implementations of all the algorithms in the book, and a (presumably) pleasant surprise :-)

This book is a wonderful reference for any student or professional seriously interested in cryptography. The book is intended for people people who already have a strong background in math and/or computer science; the faint of heart should steer clear. For a chattier introduction, refer to Schneier's "Applied Cryptography."

Menezes et. al. provide a thorough review of the field of cryptography. It's the first book I grab when I'm looking for something. Much more in depth than Bruce Scheier's "Applied Cryptography"

This book provides what is probably the best, up to date survey of the field. The book is more academically rigourous than Bruce' Applied Cryptography but may be rather tough going for those wanting a more introductory book. On the other hand the price is substantially greater.If you want to learn about the number theory behind public key cryptography this book provides the best roadmap.