Cryptography, in particular public-key cryptography, has emerged an important discipline that is not only the subject of an enormous amount of research, but provides the foundation for information security in many applications. This title provides a treatment that introduces the practical aspects of both conventional and public-key cryptography.

Foreword by Ronald L. Rivest Overview of Cryptography Introduction Information security and cryptography Background on functions Functions(1-1, one-way, trapdoor one-way) Permutations Involutions Basic terminology and concepts Symmetric-key encryption Overview of block ciphers and stream ciphers Substitution ciphers and transposition ciphers Composition of ciphers Stream ciphers The key space Digital signatures Authentication and identification Identification Data origin authentication Public-key cryptography Public-key encryption The necessity of authentication in public-key systems Digital signatures from reversible public-key encryption Symmetric-key versus public-key cryptography Hash functions Protocols and mechanisms Key establishment, management, and certification Key management through symmetric-key techniques Key management through public-key techniques Trusted third parties and public-key certificates Pseudorandom numbers and sequences Classes of attacks and security models Attacks on encryption schemes Attacks on protocols Models for evaluating security Perspective for computational security Notes and further references Mathematical Background Probability theory Basic definitions Conditional probability Random variables Binomial distribution Birthday attacks Random mappings Information theory Entropy Mutual information Complexity theory Basic definitions Asymptotic notation Complexity classes Randomized algorithms Number theory The integers Algorithms in Z The integers modulo n Algorithms in Zn The Legendre and Jacobi symbols Blum integers Abstract algebra Groups Rings Fields Polynomial rings Vector spaces Finite fields Basic properties The Euclidean algorithm for polynomials Arithmetic of polynomials N

"…very well suited for the reader who wants an encyclopedic description of the state of the art of applied modern cryptography."-Mathematical Reviews, Issue 99g "[This book] is an incredible achievement. … [T]he handbook is complete. If I want to check what problems there were with a proposed system, determine how the variations on a particular algorithm developed, see what research preceded and followed an idea, I go to the Handbook. The Handbook has accurate, clear, and correct information. It is wonderful. … If I were limited to only one cryptography text on my shelves, it would be the Handbook of Applied Cryptography." - Bulletin of the AMS