Codes: The Guide to Secrecy from Ancient to Modern Times (Discrete Mathematics and Its Applications Series)

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Overview

From the Rosetta Stone to public-key cryptography, the art and science of cryptology has been used to unlock the vivid history of ancient cultures, to turn the tide of warfare, and to thwart potential hackers from attacking computer systems. Codes: The Guide to Secrecy from Ancient to Modern Times explores the depth and breadth of the field, remaining accessible to the uninitiated while retaining enough rigor for the seasoned cryptologist.

The book begins by tracing the development of cryptology from that of an arcane practice used, for example, to conceal alchemic recipes, to the modern scientific method that is studied and employed today. The remainder of the book explores the modern aspects and applications of cryptography, covering symmetric- and public-key cryptography, cryptographic protocols, key management, message authentication, e-mail and Internet security, and advanced applications such as wireless security, smart cards, biometrics, and quantum cryptography. The author also includes non-cryptographic security issues and a chapter devoted to information theory and coding. Nearly 200 diagrams, examples, figures, and tables along with abundant references and exercises complement the discussion.

Written by leading authority and best-selling author on the subject Richard A. Mollin, Codes: The Guide to Secrecy from Ancient to Modern Times is the essential reference for anyone interested in this exciting and fascinating field, from novice to veteran practitioner.

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What People Are Saying

From the Publisher
…an encyclopedic work of a very high standard. … More than merely a book that describes cryptographic codes, scattered throughout this book are pictures and biographies of key personnel responsible for progressing the world’s knowledge and use of codes, as well as exercises and problems … This is, without question, an excellent book. … the depth of the knowledge, the provided mathematical background, and simply the correctness and consistency of symbols throughout, all give indications of the quality and amount of work that has gone into this book. … the book is probably the best book currently for the range of users.
—IACR book reviews, May 2010

It is an excellent book with unique features including more than 370 exercises…
The Cryptogram, Vol. LXXI, No. 5, September-October 2005

This is an interesting, entertaining and well-composed book. … It was a good idea to collect all exercises in the Appendix G as it makes reading easier for a general reader, while enabling university and college faculty to use the book in teaching courses in cryptography and cryptoanalysis. To conclude it is worth mentioning that all sections of the book are decorated with beautiful quotations.
Mathematical Reviews

It is full of engaging detail on the many personalities that have been drawn to this branch of applied mathematics. … a self-contained guide to the subject covering material from basic arithmetic to the foundations of group theory and probability. … Among books at the level, this one stands out for some of its vivid examples. Particularly enlightening is the discussion of quantum computing: rather than merely touching on the subject, Mollin provides a particularly illustrative and detailed example.
MAA Reviews, Dec. 2005

Richard Mollin has written many books … on cryptography for readers at many levels. I found this to be his most approachable work, and perhaps one of his most educational.
SIGACT News

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Product Details

Table of Contents

Preface FROM THE RIDDLES OF ANCIENT EGYPT TO CRYPTOGRAPHY IN THE RENAISSANCE-3,500 YEARS IN THE MAKING Antiquity-From Phaistos Cryptography in Classical Literature The Middle Ages Cryptology and the Arabs Rise of the West

FROM SIXTEENTH-CENTURY CRYPTOGRAPHY TO THE NEW MILLENNIUM-THE LAST 500 YEARS Three Post-Renaissance Centuries The American Colonies Nineteenth-Century Cryptography Two World Wars The Post War Era and the Future

SYMMETRIC-KEY CRYPTOGRAPHY Block Ciphers and DES S-DES and DES Modes of Operation Blowfish The Advanced Encryption Standard Stream Ciphers RC4

PUBLIC-KEY CRYPTOGRAPHY The Ideas Behind PKC RSA Digital Signatures ElGamal

CRYPTOGRAPHIC PROTOCOLS Introduction Keys Identification Commitment Secret Sharing Electronic Voting Protocol Layers and SSL Digital Cash Schemes

KEY MANAGEMENT Authentication, Exchange, and Distribution Public-Key Infrastructure (PKI)
Secure Electronic Transaction (SET)

MESSAGE AUTHENTICATION Authentication Functions Message Authentication Codes Encryption Functions Authentication Applications

ELECTRONIC MAIL AND INTERNET SECURITY Pretty Good Privacy (PGP)
S/MIME and PGP IPSec Internetworking and Security-Firewalls Client-Server Model and Cookies History of the Internet and the WWW

APPLICATIONS AND THE FUTURE Login and Network Security Wireless Security Smart Cards Biometrics Quantum Cryptography Nuclear Test Ban Treaty Compliance

NON-CRYPTOGRAPHIC SECURITY ISSUES Cybercrime Hackers Viruses and Other Infections Legal Matters and Controversy

INFORMATION THEORY AND CODING Shannon Entropy Huffman Codes Information Theory of Cryptosystems Error-Correcting Codes

APPENDIX A: MATHEMATICAL FACTS Sets, Relations, and Functions Basic Arithmetic Modular Arithmetic Groups, Fields, Modules, and Rings Vector Spaces Basic Matrix Theory Continued Fractions Elliptic Curves Complexity

APPENDIX B: PSEUDO-RANDOM NUMBER GENERATION ANSI X9.17
The Blum-Blum-Shub-(BBS) PRNG APPENDIX C: FACTORING LARGE INTEGERS Classical Factorization Methods The Continued Fraction Algorithm Pollard's p-1 Algorithm Pollard's Rho-Method The Quadratic Sieve (QS)
Multipolynomial Quadratic Sieve (MPQS)
The Elliptic Curve Method (ECM)
The General Number Field Sieve APPENDIX D: TECHNICAL AND ADVANCED DETAILS AES Silver-Pohlig-Hellman Baby-Step Giant-Step Algorithm Index-Calculus Algorithm Brands' Digital Cash Scheme Radix-64 Encoding APPENDIX E: PROBABILITY THEORY Basic Probability Randomness, Expectation, and Variance Binomial Distribution The Law of Large Numbers Probability and Error Detection APPENDIX F: RECOGNIZING PRIMES Primality and Compositeness Tests Miller-Selfridge-Rabin Primes is in P Generation of Random Primes Decision Problem or Primality Test?
APPENDIX G: EXERCISES BIBLIOGRAPHY LIST OF SYMBOLS INDEX

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