Chapter 2. Elementary Cryptography

In this chapter:

  • Concepts of encryption

  • Cryptanalysis: how encryption systems are “broken”

  • Symmetric (secret key) encryption and the DES and AES algorithms

  • Asymmetric (public key) encryption and the RSA algorithm

  • Key exchange protocols and certificates

  • Digital signatures

  • Cryptographic hash functions

Cryptography—secret writing—is the strongest tool for controlling against many kinds of security threats. Well-disguised data cannot be read, modified, or fabricated easily. Cryptography is rooted in higher mathematics: group and field theory, computational complexity, and even real analysis, not to mention probability and statistics. Fortunately, it is not necessary to understand the underlying mathematics to be able ...

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