Encyclopedia of Cryptography and Security

Book Description

This comprehensive encyclopedia provides easy access to information on all aspects of cryptography and security. With an A–Z format of over 460 entries, 100+ international experts provide an accessible reference for those seeking entry into any aspect of the broad fields of cryptography and information security. Most entries in this preeminent work include useful literature references, providing more than 2500 references in total.

Topics for the encyclopedia were selected by a distinguished advisory board consisting of 18 of the world’s leading scholars and practitioners. Main subject areas include:

Authentication and identification

Block ciphers and stream ciphers

Computational issues

Copy protection

Cryptanalysis and security

Cryptographic protocols

Electronic payment and digital certificates

Elliptic curve cryptography

Factorization algorithms and primality tests

Hash functions and MACs

Historical systems

Identity-based cryptography

Implementation aspects for smart cards and standards

Key management

Multiparty computations like voting schemes

Public key cryptography

Quantum cryptography

Secret sharing schemes

Sequences

Web security

The style of the entries in the Encyclopedia of Cryptography and Security is expository and tutorial rather than detailed and technical, making the book a practical resource for information security experts as well as professionals in other fields who need to access this vital information but who may not have time to work their way through an entire text on their topic of interest.

The underlying concepts in information security can be difficult to understand and may even be counter-intuitive. The Encyclopedia of Cryptography and Security will become the premier reference work on this complex subject.

Customer Reviews:

excellent coverage of crypto!.......2005-09-17

For the acutely interested reader, this encylopedia is well worth perusing from cover to cover. It is not that long that this is an arduous task. Nor is it that highly mathematical that you will take months doing so. The level of mathematical treatment is moderate. By that I mean it is less than in journal papers. To be sure, you need a strong maths background going in. And previous exposure to various crypto ideas, notably public key infrastructure, would be good.

For Web usage, people worried about the rising levels of malware might see what the book offers as possible countermeasures. As ecommerce and other activities become more frequent, the possibility of man in the middle attacks increases. Plus, the incredible recent surge in phishing and pharming has led some to suggest that strong cryptographic methods for authentication of messages and web pages might be useful. Keep in mind that this is not necessarily a given. Other methods are possible which avoid cryptography. (I am the co-inventor of several of these methods.) This is something that an astute reader should keep in mind when going through the text. Step up from the details of the various crypto procedures and ask yourself if there are ways to avoid using these, and still prevent attacks. The entire mindset of this book is about using crypto. While it is a dreadful cliche to say 'think outside the box', perhaps you should try to do so here.

There is even a discussion of quantum cryptography. Which may be an ultimate, unbreakable method, if it ever becomes feasible. The quantum systems are so delicate, especially if coherence needs to be maintained over macroscopic distances, that one might reasonably wonder about the eventual efficacies. There are two main postulated usages. One is to break an existing encryption. The other is to prevent a man in the middle attack. It is in the latter that coherence may be more of a problem. For the former, one can imagine a spatially limited, microscopic or mesoscopic system, in which the decryption is occurring.

Breaking Anonymity: The Chilly Climate for Women Faculty

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Breaking Anonymity: The Chilly Climate for Women Faculty

Manufacturer: Wilfrid Laurier Univ Pr
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0889202451

Privacy in Statistical Databases: CENEX-SDC Project International Conference, PSD 2006, Rome, Italy, December 13-15, 2006, Proceedings (Lecture Notes in Computer Science)

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Privacy in Statistical Databases: CENEX-SDC Project International Conference, PSD 2006, Rome, Italy, December 13-15, 2006, Proceedings (Lecture Notes in Computer Science)

Manufacturer: Springer
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Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 3540493301

Book Description

This book constitutes the refereed proceedings of the International Conference on Privacy in Statistical Databases, PSD 2006, held in December 2006 in Rome, Italy as the main conference of the CENEX-SDC (CENtre of EXcellence for Statistical Disclosure Control) project.

The 31 revised full papers presented were carefully reviewed and selected from 45 submissions. The papers are organized in topical sections on methods for tabular protection, utility and risk in tabular protection, methods for microdata protection, utility and risk in microdata protection, protocols for private computation, case studies, and software.

"Why Ask My Name?": Anonymity and Identity in Biblical Narrative

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How is an angel like a wise woman?

"Why Ask My Name?": Anonymity and Identity in Biblical Narrative
Adele Reinhartz
Manufacturer: Oxford University Press, USA
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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Book Description

Unnamed characters--such as Lot's wife, Jephthah's daughter, Pharaoh's baker, and the witch of Endor--are ubiquitous in the Hebrew Bible and appear in a wide variety of roles. Adele Reinhartz here seeks to answer two principal questions: first, is there a "poetics of anonymity," and if so, what are its contours? Second, how does anonymity affect the readers' response to and construction of unnamed biblical characters? The author is especially interested in issues related to gender and class, seeking to determine whether anonymity is more prominent among mothers, wives, daughters, and servants than among fathers, husbands, sons and kings and whether the anonymity of female characters functions differently from that of male characters.

Customer Reviews:

How is an angel like a wise woman?.......2000-12-11

This intriguing book makes astonishingly fresh observations on biblical characters as familiar as Adam and Moses, and gave me new insights into stories I thought I already knew by heart. It also brought to my attention characters in less well-known, fascinating and sometimes horrifying tales from Judges and Kings, sparking me to go back and read those books, which I had known only from Bowdlerized Hebrew school versions. Though Why Ask My Name is a scholarly and carefully annotated book, based on close reading of the Hebrew text, it is never pedantic and is fun to read. It makes a strong case for the importance and effects of naming or leaving unnamed and the centrality of this process to to literature in general, and the Bible in particular. It would be a good resource for someone charged with preparing a d'var Torah, and for anyone interested in storytelling.

Banvard's Folly: Tales of Renowned Obscurity, Famous Anonymity, and Rotten Luck

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FAME. Fickle and Fleeting
Fantastic Failures
Hopefully not Collins's Folly
Extraordinary Stories
Weird and Wonderful

Banvard's Folly: Tales of Renowned Obscurity, Famous Anonymity, and Rotten Luck
Paul S. Collins
Manufacturer: Picador
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Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0312268866

Amazon.com

Sometimes things don't exactly work out. Schemes collapse, experiments fail, luck runs out, or times and tastes simply change. It's a cliché that history is written by winners--but it's important to remember that it's usually written about winners, too. Paul Collins changes that, highlighting the failures, the frauds, and the forgotten in Banvard's Folly.

Most of Collins's starts were famous--or infamous--in their own time. For example, William Henry Ireland forged dozens of documents "by Shakespeare," including the play Vortigern, but was found out by his overenthusiastic use of "Ye Olde Sppellingge." (Oddly enough, William's father refused to believe his son was responsible even after William confessed; William was widely held to have been too stupid to have written such impressive forgeries.) Then there's respected scientist René Blondlot, who fooled himself--as well as most of the scientific community--into believing he had discovered a remarkable new form of radiation, which he named N-Rays. In reality, they were only an optical trick of peripheral vision. The book's namesake, John Banvard, amassed a fortune from his celebrated "Three Mile Painting"--a huge panoramic rendering of the Mississippi River--and then lost his fortune in an unsuccessful attempt to compete with master advertiser and showman P.T. Barnum.

Collins describes these and several other "nobodies and once-were-somebodies" in chatty, often tongue-in-cheek prose (in recounting the story of Jean François Sudre and his musical language, Collins notes "obsessive fans who hear already secret messages in music would not do their mental stability any favors by learning Solresol"). He also includes a handy "for further reading" section, should you have the desire to learn more about, for example, Symmes's theory of concentric spheres, grape propagation, or the medical benefits of blue glass. Funny, thought provoking, and sometimes poignant, Banvard's Folly helps to rescue these lost souls from the ash heap of history. Very highly recommended. --Sunny Delaney

Book Description

The historical record crowns success. Those enshrined in its annals are men and women whose ideas, accomplishments, or personalities have dominated, endured, and most important of all, found champions. John F. Kennedy's Profiles in Courage, Giorgio Vasari's Lives of the Artists, and Samuel Johnson's Lives of the Poets are classic celebrations of the greatest, the brightest, the eternally constellated. Paul Collins' Banvard's Folly is a different kind of book. Here are thirteen unforgettable portraits of forgotten people: men and women who might have claimed their share of renown but who, whether from ill timing, skullduggery, monomania, the tinge of madness, or plain bad luck-or perhaps some combination of them all-leapt straight from life into thankless obscurity. Among their number are scientists, artists, writers, entrepreneurs, and adventurers, from across the centuries and around the world. They hold in common the silenced aftermath of failure, the name that rings no bells. Collins brings them back to glorious life. John Banvard was an artist whose colossal panoramic canvasses (one behemoth depiction of the entire eastern shore of the Mississippi River was simply known as "The Three Mile Painting") made him the richest and most famous artist of his day. . . before he decided to go head to head with P. T. Barnum. Ren Blondot was a distinguished French physicist whose celebrated discovery of a new form of radiation, called the N-Ray, went terribly awry. At the tender age of seventeen, William Henry Ireland signed "William Shakespeare" to a book and launched a short but meteoric career as a forger of undiscovered works by the Bard-until he pushed his luck too far. John Symmes, a hero of the War of 1812, nearly succeeded in convincing Congress to fund an expedition to the North Pole, where he intended to prove his theory that the earth was hollow and ripe for exploitation; his quixotic quest counted Jules Verne and Edgar Allan Poe among its greatest admirers. Collins' love for what he calls the "forgotten ephemera of genius" give his portraits of these figures and the other nine men and women in Banvard's Folly sympathetic depth and poignant relevance. Their effect is not to make us sneer or revel in schadenfreude; here are no cautionary tales. Rather, here are brief introductions-acts of excavation and reclamation-to people whom history may have forgotten, but whom now we cannot. AUTHORBIO: Paul Collins writes for McSweeneys Quarterly, and his work has also appeared in Lingua Franca and eCompany Now. While writing Banvard's Folly he lived in San Francisco, where he taught early-American literature at Dominican University. He and his family moved briefly to Wales-a journey about which he is writing a book-and now live in Oregon.

Customer Reviews:

FAME. Fickle and Fleeting.......2002-03-22

Nowadays Andy Warhol's 15 minutes truism is rendered mundane by the endless parade of incongruous celebrity imposed by today's incessant Media spectacle. This book brings the idea that we are very likely mistaken in our estimation of contemporary fame profoundly to life. The fact that some of the greatest artist our culture has produced labored in obscurity among their contemporaries is a familiar one. This eye-opening book explains why this is so.

By focusing on the past when Media was not so omnipresent we see that the random and ever changing quality of popular tastes always pertain. Through his re-telling of these 13 now obscure curiosities the author achieves valuable insight into the sometimes ludicrous, often venal whims and fancies that propel some issues and their advocates into the vanguard of the public mind.

The prose occasionally suffers from what I'd call journalism. As I read the first story I wished the author had been able to breathed greater life into the facts presented. In the hands of someone more ambitious some of these tales might stand more clearly as metaphor or epiphany. Of course they might just as easily have lost their focus on the valuable idea that contemporaneous enthusiasms are almost inevitably misguided. And in hindsight most, like the delightful story of Psalmanazar, could not be improved upon.

Don't ignore the further reading supplement. Finding it somewhat dry at first I almost did. It's interest lies in the gathered details presented of how one finds such obscurities.

Fantastic Failures.......2001-07-31

We pay plenty of attention to winners in history, but there have to be even more losers out there. Losers who may have been clever, may have been original, may have dreamed the big, impossible dream, and worked hard on their paths to fame and riches, but because of mere fortune, or cupidity, or bad choices, found the path did not lead to success. Failure just is not interesting, or at least most failures are not. But some are, and Paul Collins tells about some amazing ones in _Banvardýs Folly: Thirteen Tales of Renowned Obscurity, Famous Anonymity, and Rotten Luck_ (Picador). Collins has done good research to bring us these funny true stories and has a dry, sharp style that is a delight.

The title tale is about John Banvard, who in the 1850s ýwas the most famous living painter in the world, and possibly the first millionaire artist in history.ý Why havenýt you heard of him before now? Because time swallowed him up. Banvard sailed down the Mississippi and sketched all he saw on the 3,000 mile voyage. He then painted what he had sketched, producing the biggest picture ever, said to be three miles long. The panorama was rolled up, and he displayed it on stage as it rolled by, while he gave narration and was accompanied by piano waltzes he had commissioned. His performance pieces were slow at first, but became a sensation, as he played Boston, New York, and then London, where he impressed the royal family and Charles Dickens. Banvard spent time in London museums, being taught to read hieroglyphics; he then sailed down the Nile to make another panoramic painting. He was troubled with those sincerest flatterers, imitators; he had made a huge fortune, but his invention was so popular that scores of other panoramas were on tour. He decided to set up, instead, as a museum keeper, his huge display of curios in a massive New York building, described as the best museum in Manhattan. In this, he was in competition against P. T. Barnum, who was by far the most capable promoter, and Banvard returned to the frontier where he was once again a poor and unknown painter. A few panels of his many paintings are all that remain of his work.

Here you will find the astonishing story of Englishman William Henry Ireland, born in 1775, who because his father never thought much of his writing, started forging plays by Shakespeare, and created a literary sensation. We read also the sad story of Delia Bacon, who was one of the first lunatics to write profusely on the theory that Shakespeare was not Shakespeare, but was a front for a collaborative effort by Walter Raleigh, Edmund Spenser, and Francis Bacon. A lighter note is the story of Robert ýRomeoý Coates, whose beyond-hammy acting brought down the house, when his Romeo died not once but three times. There is a chapter on Blondlotýs N-rays, probably the most famous incident described in the book, an incident of scientific self-delusion. There is one on John Cleves Symmes, an Ohioan who did everything he could to convince his countrymen about the holes at the poles of the Earth which would lead to its hollow core. Thereýs one on A.J. Pleasanton, who shined blue light on everything imaginable and improved it.

And more. Collins has done an amazing amount of research into long-lost books and pamphlets to bring us these astonishing instructive stories and amazing cautionary tales, the sorts of tales that the proverb ýTruth is stranger than fictioný was coined for. He has wry comments within his storytelling which makes reading his words great fun, and the stories are incomparable. Losers were never so fascinating.

Hopefully not Collins's Folly.......2001-06-25

Perhaps writing a book about failure, anonymity and obscurity is tempting fate ever so slightly - it would almost seem ironic if this book was a runaway success. Yet, it deserves to be; Collins crafts a book in which we empathize with the characters: we genuinely want their lives to be successes, despite knowing that ultimately, they wont be. At times, I felt like screaming at the book 'No! Don't do it!'

Painful as the 13 (not coincidentally chosen, I'm sure) stories are, they make compulsive reading. My favourites included the one about a visionary man who intended to build a pneumonic public transport system in New York City, and the story of the medical powers of blue light.

There were, of course, some chapters that I didn't find as arresting - not because they weren't well written, but because they weren't on subjects that I am interested in - however, curiously enough, when I gave it to my mother to read, she found the chapters that I didn't like as much the MOST interesting.

This is Paul Collins's first book, and I just hope that it doesn't wind up being his last, because the overriding feeling at the end of book was of wanting more, and what better indicator is there of a good book?

Extraordinary Stories.......2001-05-22

The author brilliantly captures the misery of those who tried, succeeded and then stumbled into oblivion.

Bulls epitaph "HE SOWED,OTHERS REAPED" sums up most of the stories, although greed, a flare for the untruth, and insouciance played a leading role in many of the cases. The ultimate failures of these people is treated with good humor but also with respect and to some of us, it gets a bit too close to home for comfort.

An extraordinary and facinating collection of tales. Beautifully written and obviously researched in great depth.

Weird and Wonderful.......2001-05-05

When McSweeney's magazine first ran Paul Collins' work, they printed a sort of reverse disclaimer, saying something like "Paul Collins does not lie. Paul Collins teaches at a Christian college." I thought of this constantly while reading this book, because it veers in and out of (sur)reality. But, although it reads like fiction, it's all apparently true. If I had my way, there would be twice as many illustrations (A couple of the subjects aren't even pictured. Maybe something can be scared up for the paperback). The photograph of Rene Blondlot is too hilarious to be believed. Also, I think some of these characters merit their own books, especially Banvard, Psalmanazzar, and the subway man.

Nameless Relations: Anonymity, Melanesia And Reproductive Gift Exchange Between British Ova Donors And Recipients (Fertility, Reproduction and Sexuality)

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Nameless Relations: Anonymity, Melanesia And Reproductive Gift Exchange Between British Ova Donors And Recipients (Fertility, Reproduction and Sexuality)
Monica Konrad
Manufacturer: Berghahn Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 184545040X

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This book changed my life.

Anonymity a Family Memoir
Susan Bergman
Manufacturer: PreviewPort Editions
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Binding: Paperback

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Book Description

"It was not until our father died that we found out about his other life. Then our other lives began." A family memoir. When Don Heche died of AIDS in 1983 at the age of 45, one of the earliest casualties of the epidemic, he left behind a family stunned not only by his loss but by the revelation that for years he had led a secret homosexual life. Determined to reexamine the family?s self-image in the light of this new awareness, writer Susan Bergman sought out her father?s friends and companions and delved back into family history, looking for the telltale fault lines in what had seemed an all-American story. Author Ron Hansen called her wise, passionate, beautifully written book ?the finest portrayal of fear and hiddenness in families that I have ever read.?

Customer Reviews:

This book changed my life........2002-01-18

I was a young man when I read Bergman's story and it convinced me that a sense of anonymity is a delusion. I've tried to be a transparent and accountable person and never consider anonymity when making moral decisions. Even though I read the book only once when it was first released, I still think about it often.

Susan Bergman writes prose like a poet. Her story could be a Jerry Springer show but, instead, she turns it into a moving morality play.

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When Don Heche died of AIDS in 1983 at the age of 45, one of the earliest casualties of the epidemic, he left behind a family stunned not only by his loss but by the revelation that for years he had led a secret homosexual life. Determined to reexamine the family's self-image in the light of this new awareness, writer Susan Bergman sought out her father's friends and companions and delved back into family history, looking for the telltale fault lines in what had seemed an all-American story. Author Ron Hansen called her wise, passionate, beautifully written book "the finest portrayal of fear and hiddenness in families that I have ever read."

Customer Reviews:

Changed my life.......2005-03-03

This books is eloquent, honest and infatuating. It is also a rare devout Christian voice that doesn't sound like James Dobson... and is well worth reading for those reasons.

And it's a very powerful morality play.

"Anonymity" is on a very short list of books that changed my life. The basic premise of the book -- that secret morality is a self-deception-- was exactly what I needed as I was developing my personal values.

I often think about "Anonymity" as I consider making a moral decision; my decision will probably become public at some point.

Eloquent.......2003-11-03

Eloquent is the best word I can use to desribe Susan Heche Bergman's telling of her family story. Having read both Anne and Susan's stories about their family life, it is always interesting to see the different perspectives from siblings in the same family. I recommend listening to Anne's story first on CD as she adds profound emphasis to the telling and like so many good stories they are truly oral histories. I think it is nearly impossible for anyone to judge a family story other than those people who have lived the story. I thank them both for being brave enough to share their thoughts and perspectives on what happened while they were growing up. Clearly we are priviledged to be listening to what would normally only be divulged in a therapist office. We all need to hear more of these stories in order that we may come to understand that it is society's closed doors that keep people locked inside closets they don't know how to open; unfortunatley, for the Heche children, with devastating consequences. I have rarely read more finely written closing chapters than those where Susan descibes her longing to be throughly known pehaps "only as God could observe." My final thoughts upon finishing both books is that these sisters are closer than they know.

Profoundly moving, perceptive, and heart-wrenching!.......2003-04-03

This book paints a tinglingly vivid portrait of the modern-day dysfuncional family. The gay father, the brother killed in a car accident, the lesbian-turned-straight sister, whoa! Poor Susan! The fact that she can write about all of this tragedy with a triumphant heart and crystal clarity is astonishing. My mother came out of the closet 15 years ago and I could relate to Susan's anguish and desperate need to understand her father's closeted homosexuality. As a Christian, I was touched by her sincerity and her commitment to the truth. She expresses anger at her father but she also shows he deeply she loved him. Christians are so often accused and accursed of being "hate-mongers" and "anti-gay" but most of us are like everyone else, trying to understand and homosexuals without condoning their lifestyle. Homosexuals are free to live as they choose but their lifestyle is not compatible with Christian theology. This does not mean that we hate them. There is no room for 'hate' in the true Christian's life. I see no such hate in Susan Bergman's tale of her father. Here is a woman who loves a man dying of AIDS with merciful abandon. Too bad her story is not heard in the mass media, it is one worth remembering and sharing.

Sad Story Badly Told.......2001-12-22

Although my heart goes out to both of the Heche sisters and I have read both equally bad books I can not recommend either one of the books. I would however love to see a neutral party interview all the family members and friends of their father and the family to obtain a more coherent telling of the tale. It appears that Ann and Susan don't get along and neither one did much research in writing the book. Save your money for future tell alls by the Condits, Kennedys, Clintons, Ramsays, and OJ Simpsons.

Anne Heche's sister tells the story...........2001-09-07

I read this book years ago before anyone had heard of Anne Heche, former "wife" of Ellen Degeneres and author of a new book, Call Me Crazy. In this book--Anonymity--Anne's siter Susan tells a tragic story of a gay man who was ashamed of being gay and a wife who is the epitome of denial. Everyone in the family suffers (read about the son!) in their own way. The only one who seemed to escape it at all was Anne, the pretty, blond sister who had gone to New York to become an actress. Yet today Anne "recollects" horror stories about her family which do not jive at all with this honest, poetic book by Susan. Read this book for a story of true family dysfunction in the 20th century. It is quite a book! Very well written and honest. (I am hoping it comes back in print with the recent publicity Anne's book is receiving.)

Banishing Anonymity: Middle and High School Advisement Programs

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Banishing Anonymity: Middle and High School Advisement Programs
John M. Jenkins , and Bonnie S. Daniel
Manufacturer: Eye on Education,
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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