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Ask HN: Best book on modern cryptography?

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Re: Ask HN: Best book on modern cryptography?

#31

To piggy back on this thread, can anyone recommend a book on cryptography for mathematicians? I'm familiar with some of the more popular applied books, but I'm also interested in more rigorous texts that use careful proofs and state theorems etc.

J. Katz, and Y. Lindell, 2015: Introduction to Modern Cryptography, 2nd ed. CRC Press, 583 pp.

Re: Ask HN: Best book on modern cryptography?

#32
post #22

David Wong's _Real World Cryptography_: https://www.manning.com/books/real-world-cryptography Jean-Philippe Aumasson's _Serious Cryptography_: https://nostarch.com/seriouscrypto Ferguson and Schneier's _Cryptography Engineering_: https://www.amazon.com/Cryptography-Engineering-Principles-P... --- dated, a little wrong about some things, but not insane (like _Applied Cryptography_ is). Hoffman, Pipher, and Silverman's…

I just finished serious cryptography, and I'm looking for the next step forward. I have little to know real programming experience, and my math skills aren't the greatest, (only high school with basic understanding beyond that, I think I understand the math behind RSA, but not the implementation so much)

Would cryptography engineering be too advanced for me? I plan on developing my programming skills after I get a computer, but until then want to continue learning.

Re: Ask HN: Best book on modern cryptography?

#33
I still like Bellare and Rogaway's old lecture notes. They are mostly theoretical so you will have to read something else for implementation techniques. But implementation is just programming. I think it is important to understand some theory if you're going to implement anything cryptographic, since it will help you avoid a lot of dumb errors that get made all the time.

https://web.cs.ucdavis.edu/~rogaway/classes/227/spring05/boo...

Re: Ask HN: Best book on modern cryptography?

#34
post #22

David Wong's _Real World Cryptography_: https://www.manning.com/books/real-world-cryptography Jean-Philippe Aumasson's _Serious Cryptography_: https://nostarch.com/seriouscrypto Ferguson and Schneier's _Cryptography Engineering_: https://www.amazon.com/Cryptography-Engineering-Principles-P... --- dated, a little wrong about some things, but not insane (like _Applied Cryptography_ is). Hoffman, Pipher, and Silverman's…

I just finished serious cryptography, and I'm looking for the next step forward. I have little to know real programming experience, and my math skills aren't the greatest, (only high school with basic understanding beyond that, I think I understand the math behind RSA, but not the implementation so much) Would cryptography engineering be too advanced for me? I plan on developing my programming skills after I get a co…

Cryptography Engineering is less advanced than Serious Cryptography (but it's "take-y-er"; there's a lot of opinion / best practices stuff in it, and a lot of that is good).

I'd say that if you've read and grokked Serious Cryptography, and you don't want to write code, something like _IMC_ (Silverman, above) is an interesting next step, in that you'll mostly be reasoning about math, and you'll be working at a much lower level than the basic RSA formulae.

It also depends on what aspects of cryptography are interesting to you. If you want, for instance, to get a much better grip on how bulk cryptography works, as opposed to signatures and key exchanges, your best next step might be papers. For instance, a good next step on block cipher cryptography would be the Heys tutorial: https://ioactive.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/ldc_tutorial...

Re: Ask HN: Best book on modern cryptography?

#36

A fun book to read is "The Code Book: The Science of Secrecy from Ancient Egypt to Quantum Cryptography" It's a fast read and it gives a brief history of cypher tech over time.

Lol. I’ve read part of this book but didn’t see the full title. This is a book by Simon Singh.

https://www.amazon.com.au/gp/aw/d/0385495323/ref=tmm_pap_swa...

Check out his other book - Fermat’s Last Theorem

Re: Ask HN: Best book on modern cryptography?

#37
post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I just finished serious cryptography, and I'm looking for the next step forward. I have little to know real programming experience, and my math skills aren't the greatest, (only high school with basic understanding beyond that, I think I understand the math behind RSA, but not the implementation so much) Would cryptography engineering be too advanced for me? I plan on developing my programming skills after I get a co…

Cryptography Engineering is less advanced than Serious Cryptography (but it's "take-y-er"; there's a lot of opinion / best practices stuff in it, and a lot of that is good). I'd say that if you've read and grokked Serious Cryptography, and you don't want to write code, something like _IMC_ (Silverman, above) is an interesting next step, in that you'll mostly be reasoning about math, and you'll be working at a much lo…

Thank you for your reply and guidance.

Looks like I can't pick up IMC at my local library, so I'll have to wait a tad on that one, but I can start with papers right away. I can't quite say what my particular interests in cryptography are, but (I guess not too surprisingly) I have a desire to know more about Hash functions. Now I'm going to try to hunt down the papers for Skein. Thanks again!

Re: Ask HN: Best book on modern cryptography?

#38
post #19

Joy of Cryptography by Mike Rosulek is my favorite: https://joyofcryptography.com/ Written by a past professor of mine. Grounded in a lot of math, but not intimidating.

I vouched for your comment, because it seems earnest but was marked dead. I don't see anything in your comment history to indicate that you are shadowbanned. I have not read the book, except to verify that it was real and looked plausible. If your comment was downvoted for content, I hope people will comment instead.

Can vouch for the book, and while I haven’t finished it yet - it is well written.

Re: Ask HN: Best book on modern cryptography?

#39

A fun book to read is "The Code Book: The Science of Secrecy from Ancient Egypt to Quantum Cryptography" It's a fast read and it gives a brief history of cypher tech over time.

This is a great book indeed. I recommend this too as well as other books by the same author for popsci fans - Fermat's Last Theorem, Big Bang.
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