The Joy of Cryptography

Description

The Joy of Cryptography is an undergraduate textbook in cryptography. This book grew out of lecture notes I developed for the cs427 course at Oregon State University (and before that, cs473 at the University of Montana). I am well aware that the title is ridiculous, but all of the serious titles were already taken. At this point I’m committed to the gag, for better or worse. Anyway, actual joy not guaranteed. Information for Students What Will You Learn In This Book? I’m not going to lie. This book has a theoretical flavor, that reflects my personal bias as a theoretician. I understand that theory-for-theory’s-sake doesn’t motivate everyone in the same way that it motivates me. If I can’t get everyone to fall in love with the theory, my instructional goal is to ensure that everyone can at least appreciate it. In the book I try to keep the real- world implications of the theory in view. The book does cover: - How it is possible to formally define security properties and reason about them mathematically. - How the most common cryptographic constructions work: what makes them se- cure, while similar constructions are insecure? - The difference between different kinds of cryptographic primitives (PRFs, block ci- phers, encryption, MACs, hash functions, etc). This includes differences in their interfaces, differences in their security properties, and most importantly, how to think about which primitive is best suited for a particular security goal.