Serious Cryptography
A Practical Introduction to Modern Encryption
Published on 6. November 2017
Book
Paperback/Softback
312 pages
978-1-59327-826-7 (ISBN)
Description
Serious Cryptography is the much anticipated review of modern cryptography by cryptographer JP Aumasson. This is a book for readers who want to understand how cryptography works in today's world. The book is suitable for a wide audience, yet is filled with mathematical concepts and meaty discussions of how the various cryptographic mechanisms work. Chapters cover the notion of secure encryption, randomness, block ciphers and ciphers, hash functions and message authentication codes, public-key crypto including RSA, Diffie-Hellman, and elliptic curves, as well as TLS and post-quantum cryptography. Numerous code examples and real use cases throughout will help practitioners to understand the core concepts behind modern cryptography, as well as how to choose the best algorithm or protocol and ask the right questions of vendors. Aumasson discusses core concepts like computational security and forward secrecy, as well as strengths and limitations of cryptographic functionalities related to authentication, integrity, or random number generation. Readers also learn how to avoid common mistakes with implementations, thanks to a section in every chapter that discuss what could go wrong, including horror stories and examples of failures in real applications.
Reviews / Votes
"A superb introduction to modern encryption and cryptography. For those looking to quickly get up to speed on the topics, this makes for an excellent go-to guide."-Ben Rothke, RSA Conference
"It's really a love letter to cryptography."
-Nadim Kobeissi
"For those who really want to understand how cryptography works, and who need to use it in practice, I thoroughly recommend Serious Cryptography."
-Martijn Grooten, Virus Bulletin
"Impressive in its breadth...the state of the art in applied cryptography is distilled here in a mere 282 pages."
-Federico Lucifredi, The Hub
"Aumasson successfully ensures that the reader has a strong understanding of cryptography's core ideas... Serious Cryptography is a must read for anyone wanting to enter cryptographic engineering."
-Infosecurity Magazine
"Each chapter not only explains concepts and key implementation details, but also highlights possible pitfalls, common mistakes, and finishes with a list of recommended materials."
-Artificial Truth
"Jean-Philippe Aumasson's Serious Cryptography is a classic (and serious) introduction to the field."
-Mary Branscombe, ZDNet
"It's advanced but the best book I've ever read for PKI is Serious Cryptography by Aumasson. Probably don't want to start with it but if you get serious you'll want to read it."
-Chris Sandvick, @ChrisSandvick
"My favorite reference."
-Colin O'Flynn, Circuit Cellar
"For those wanting to go beyond the basics of cryptography in the blockchain, 'Serious Cryptography' by Jean-Philippe Aumasson is an invaluable resource."
-Halborn Security
More details
Language
English
Place of publication
San Francisco
United States
Dimensions
Height: 176 mm
Width: 231 mm
Thickness: 20 mm
Weight
525 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-59327-826-7 (9781593278267)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Person
Jean-Philippe Aumassonais Principal Cryptographer at Kudelski Security, in Switzerland. He has authored over 40 research articles in the field of cryptography and cryptanalysis and designed the cryptographic functions BLAKE2 and SipHash. He regularly speaks at InfoSec conferences, and has presented at Black Hat, DEFCON, Troopers, and Syscan, among others.
Content
Foreword by Matthew D. Green
Preface
Abbreviations
Chapter 1: Encryption
Chapter 2: Randomness
Chapter 3: Cryptographic Security
Chapter 4: Block Ciphers
Chapter 5: Stream Ciphers
Chapter 6: Hash Functions
Chapter 7: Keyed Hashing
Chapter 8: Authenticated Encryption
Chapter 9: Hard Problems
Chapter 10: RSA
Chapter 11: Diffie-Hellman
Chapter 12: Elliptic Curves
Chapter 13: TLS
Chapter 14: Quantum and Post-Quantum
Index
Preface
Abbreviations
Chapter 1: Encryption
Chapter 2: Randomness
Chapter 3: Cryptographic Security
Chapter 4: Block Ciphers
Chapter 5: Stream Ciphers
Chapter 6: Hash Functions
Chapter 7: Keyed Hashing
Chapter 8: Authenticated Encryption
Chapter 9: Hard Problems
Chapter 10: RSA
Chapter 11: Diffie-Hellman
Chapter 12: Elliptic Curves
Chapter 13: TLS
Chapter 14: Quantum and Post-Quantum
Index