Handbook of Applied Cryptography (Discrete Mathematics and Its Applications) at Dominant Systems Book Store

…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

Customer Reviews & Comments
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 :-)

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