Average customer rating:
- Amazing book
- Both clear and complete
- Foremost book in the field
- very useful for both beginners and experts
- Excellent applications-based approach to Error Correction
|
Error Control Coding, Second Edition
Shu Lin , and
Daniel J. Costello
Manufacturer: Prentice Hall
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
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Similar Items:
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Digital Communications
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Error Correction Coding: Mathematical Methods and Algorithms
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Algebraic Codes for Data Transmission
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Fundamentals of Wireless Communication
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Digital Communications: Fundamentals and Applications (2nd Edition)
ASIN: 0130426725 |
Book Description
A reorganized and comprehensive major revision of a classic book, this edition provides a bridge between introductory digital communications and more advanced treatment of information theory. Completely updated to cover the latest developments, it presents state-of-the-art error control techniques. Coverage of the fundamentals of coding and the applications of codes to the design of real error control systems. Contains the most recent developments of coded modulation, trellises for codes, soft-decision decoding algorithms, turbo coding for reliable data transmission and other areas. There are two new chapters on Reed-Solomon codes & concatenated coding schemes. Also contains hundreds of new and revised examples; and more than 200 illustrations of code structures, encoding and decoding circuits and error performance of many important codes and error control coding systems. Appropriate for those with minimum mathematical background as a comprehensive reference for coding theory.
Customer Reviews:
Amazing book.......2007-07-13
I have the first version of this book. Now I am so glad to have the second version too. It has great improvement. It added quite lot of recent FEC tech in, including Turbo coding, LDPC coding. Besides, it is quite easy for a engineer to understand, not awkward as some math equation filled textbooks. Its block diagram can be easily understood by an engineer like me. Amazing book!
Both clear and complete.......2007-05-15
Not only does this book contain almost all the important information about coding you could hope for, but it's written in such a clear way with such a consistent notation that it's also wonderful for learning. This book is more than twice as long as the first edition and serves as a great graduate-level text or reference for someone designing ECC systems.
Foremost book in the field.......2004-10-19
I had the previous version of this book as my text at USC. This version is a huge improvement over the last one. This one covers all the new advances and adds emphasis on the use of coding to communications channels. A complaint I had of the last version was that it under-emphasized coding gains and Eb/N0 vs. BER performance figures. This book has overcome many of those difficulties. It is still a bit ponderous in places but then it is the only book that covers the material in this much detail, truly a Bible of the field. It is a great graduate level text and a must-have book for any comm engineer. Charan Langton complextoreal.com
very useful for both beginners and experts.......1999-06-12
a very detailed book for getting into Galois field arithmetics, cyclic codes, convolutional codes, ... As a very beginner I had no big problems understanding the content. I am not the type of guy who could understand just by reading the theory - this book gives a lot of very useful examples, so you could call it fun reading it!
Excellent applications-based approach to Error Correction.......1998-10-05
Lin and Costello produced an excellent text which is targeted towards engineers as opposed to mathematicians. The mathematics behind error correction can be extremely intensive and, with other texts, I quickly become lost in complex proofs. Lin and Costello present error correction in method, with plenty of good examples, which those who need to know how to apply it can understand and the gory details of the theory are not as important. I used this book as my introduction to error correction and it continues to be a great reference book. The only drawback in it is since it was published in '82, it stops at convolutional coding and does not cover trellis-coded modulation or turbo codes.
Amazon.com
Douglas R. Stinson's Cryptography: Theory and Practice is a mathematically intensive examination of cryptography, including ciphers, the Data Encryption Standard (DES), public key cryptography, one-way hash functions, and digital signatures. Stinson's explication of "zero-sum proofs"--a process by which one person lets another person know that he or she has a password without actually revealing any information--is especially good.
If you are new to the math behind cryptography but want to tackle it, the author covers all of the required background to understand the real mathematics here. Cryptography includes extensive exercises with each chapter and makes an ideal introduction for any math-literate person willing to get acquainted with this material.
Book Description
THE LEGACY… First introduced in 1995, Cryptography: Theory and Practice garnered enormous praise and popularity, and soon became the standard textbook for cryptography courses around the world. The second edition was equally embraced, and enjoys status as a perennial bestseller. Now in its third edition, this authoritative text continues to provide a solid foundation for future breakthroughs in cryptography. WHY A THIRD EDITION? The art and science of cryptography has been evolving for thousands of years. Now, with unprecedented amounts of information circling the globe, we must be prepared to face new threats and employ new encryption schemes on an ongoing basis. This edition updates relevant chapters with the latest advances and includes seven additional chapters covering: · Pseudorandom bit generation in cryptography · Entity authentication, including schemes built from primitives and special purpose "zero-knowledge" schemes · Key establishment including key distribution and protocols for key agreement, both with a greater emphasis on security models and proofs · Public key infrastructure, including identity-based cryptography · Secret sharing schemes · Multicast security, including broadcast encryption and copyright protection THE RESULT… Providing mathematical background in a "just-in-time" fashion, informal descriptions of cryptosystems along with more precise pseudocode, and a host of numerical examples and exercises, Cryptography: Theory and Practice, Third Edition offers comprehensive, in-depth treatment of the methods and protocols that are vital to safeguarding the mind-boggling amount of information circulating around the world.
Customer Reviews:
It lacks theory.......2007-06-15
The book is good about protocols and methods but it lacks the real theory underlying modern cryptography.
For a more serious treatment of these topics i recommend "Introduction to modern cryptography" by J. Katz and Y. Lindell (which i read in form of draft) and "Foundations of Cryptography Vol. 1" by O. Goldreich.
A good reference.......2007-04-24
I may not intend to read this book from cover to cover but would rather use it as a reference. As an engineer I like chapter 2 Shannon's Theory which gives an answer to why a cryptosytem is secure.
Personally I am doing the job related to network security and perfer to recommend the book by C. Kaufman, R. Perlman, and M. Speciner:Network Security: Private Communication in a Public World, Second Edition.
Good book after Schneier's Non-Mathematical Treatment.......2005-05-28
If you are an engineer trying to learn crypto, maybe get a book on number theory to go with this book. It'd be nice if there were fewer errors and more worked out problems, as well.
Overall a good effort but written by a mathematican so you need a book like Schenier's that explains how to use the tools. Maybe Scheier is the one I'd read first. Then read Stinson's to understand how the tools work because Scheier's book is mathematically barren.
Volume III of the Definitive Work.......2005-04-17
This book takes a fairly rigorous mathematical approach to cryptography. It is intended for upper level undergraduate and graduate students in mathematics, computer science and engineering. I suspect only the quite mathematically inclined computer science and engineering students will find this book helpful. This is not a Boy Scout how to do secret messages book, but a book that will give the professional the data needed to implement cryptographic software, and the mathematician hints on both code breaking and creating.
This is the third edition of this book. With the second edition, the author got rid of several several subjects that were not right at the core of cryptography, with the intend of doing a second volume. Instead, the art and scienct of cryptography has changed so fast during the past few years that a two volume approach isn't practical. Instead, he has produced this third edition that picks back up many of the subjects from the first edition. All of the material in this edition has been extensively re-written to incorporate the latest theories and practices.
In recent years the use of cryptography has increased by several orders of magnitude. Every time we buy something with a credit card, use on line banking, send a password to access e-mail, we use cryptography. With this growth, the interest at software companies, universities, and other places has grown accordingly and this text has become the standard by which others are compared.
Highly recommended for the serious student.
Could be a great book .... but it falls short.......2004-05-02
As other people have pointed out, this is not a mathematics book, and it is not an algorithm (recipies) book. It could be a great book for people that are interested in learning these tools to actually use them, either in a research or product development context (something besides homework). Unfortunately, the number of typos, in key mathematical expressions AND PORTIONS OF THE EXPLANATIONS is staggering. Go to the author's web page and you will find that some chapters, like 4 for example, average more than one typo per page (and some of these 'typos' are full sentences, or math expressions that do not look like anything that is actually printed on the page). If you do not have that errata sheet handy, you will waste a lot of time trying to understand the text, or trying to solve the exercises. If you are trying to learn from this book, without attending a class and without the errata, you will simply give up. It is a real shame because it has all the makings of a great book.
Customer Reviews:
quick reference on PKI.......2007-05-24
This book is just what I needed - a quick tutorial on PKI. It is easy to read and the examples are straight forward. The book is an excellent place to start if you need to get up to speed on cryptography.
One Great Book.......2007-03-26
Being a technical book about a heavy topic I was pleasantly surprised that this book was pretty much "unputdownable". Concepts related to digital certificates, private key/public key cryptography, SSL protocol etc. are lucidly explained and very well presented without for a moment losing track of the overall context. All the chapters are short and sweet and cover everything essential for moving forward with confidence to the next chapter. I would highly recommend reading this book from cover to cover to anyone who is not satisfied with the half-baked knowledge available out there on this subject.
Wonderful book explaining all the secret s of secure communication.......2006-03-04
Cryptography Decrypted is an easy to read and fun book that explains how cryptography has evolved from Caesar's time to now. The author goes over how encryption is used in all areas of communication, and what sequential systems have deveoped to stop hacker attacks along the way. It is detailed but fun to read, and explains how all the enigmatic parts, like Private Keys, Public Keys, Secret Keys, Digital Signatures, SMIME, PGP, RSA, SHA-1 ect. all fit together.
This is an excellent 300 page softback that takes the mystery out of encryption and cryptanalysis. I highly recommend it.
Would love to see H.X. Mel and Doris Baker update it from 2001 to include all that has changed and been added to the present time.
Simply THE BEST!!!.......2006-02-01
This book is phenomenal! I skimmed through countless books on cryptography before I settled on this one. The authors Mel and Baker have the unique ability to make a complex subject like cryptography completely accessible even to the mathematically challenged. This book is a MUST READ! If you work in the IT Security or Network Design field, this book gives you all the background you need to be more effective in your job without having the turgid style of most crypto books. It really does a fantastic job of explaining all the basic building blocks of cryptography as well as suites like SSL and IPSEC in plain everyday language. You will not be disappointed with this book!
Good first book on security.......2005-03-04
Excellent book for people who want to understand in nutshell what security is all about. If you are overwhelmed by several security terms and want to know how things fit in a bigger picture, this is the book for you.
Book Description
Hackers have uncovered the dark side of cryptography—that device developed to defeat Trojan horses, viruses, password theft, and other cyber-crime. It’s called cryptovirology, the art of turning the very methods designed to protect your data into a means of subverting it. In this fascinating, disturbing volume, the experts who first identified cryptovirology show you exactly what you’re up against and how to fight back.
They will take you inside the brilliant and devious mind of a hacker—as much an addict as the vacant-eyed denizen of the crackhouse—so you can feel the rush and recognize your opponent’s power. Then, they will arm you for the counterattack.
This book reads like a futuristic fantasy, but be assured, the threat is ominously real. Vigilance is essential, now.
- Understand the mechanics of computationally secure information stealing
- Learn how non-zero sum Game Theory is used to develop survivable malware
- Discover how hackers use public key cryptography to mount extortion attacks
- Recognize and combat the danger of kleptographic attacks on smart-card devices
- Build a strong arsenal against a cryptovirology attack
Download Description
Hackers have uncovered the dark side of cryptography—that device developed to defeat Trojan horses, viruses, password theft, and other cyber-crime. It’s called cryptovirology, the art of turning the very methods designed to protect your data into a means of subverting it. In this fascinating, disturbing volume, the experts who first identified cryptovirology show you exactly what you’re up against and how to fight back.
They will take you inside the brilliant and devious mind of a hacker—as much an addict as the vacant-eyed denizen of the crackhouse—so you can feel the rush and recognize your opponent’s power. Then, they will arm you for the counterattack.
This book reads like a futuristic fantasy, but be assured, the threat is ominously real. Vigilance is essential, now.
- Understand the mechanics of computationally secure information stealing
- Learn how non-zero sum Game Theory is used to develop survivable malware
- Discover how hackers use public key cryptography to mount extortion attacks
- Recognize and combat the danger of kleptographic attacks on smart-card devices
- Build a strong arsenal against a cryptovirology attack
Customer Reviews:
A great technical book for advanced users.......2005-04-25
Although "Malicious Cryptography" is most certainly not for beginners, you will enjoy it if you have some background in security and anti-virus research.
Be warned, though: cyber-punk style of this book will probably resonate with some, and irk others.
Excellent!!!.......2005-02-02
Malicious Cryptography: Exposing Cryptovirology is a brilliant book from two leading cryptographers.
This is not for the fainthearted.
If you are looking for an intro to crypto, look elsewhere.
If you want cutting edge info about breaking crypto and making your crypto stronger, this is the book.
totally rads.......2004-07-08
duncan young is truly a gift to the world of cyberphreakery. i once saw him defeat a host of cyborg lemurs with his chainsaw-arm. it was so good. this guy is from the f*ckin future. 'nuff said
Excellent.......2004-05-30
Bypassing computer security systems has sometimes been called an art rather than a science by those who typically do not interact with computing machines at a level that would allow them to appreciate the science behind security attacks. This book does not address the strategies of how to bypass security systems, but instead concentrates on how to use cryptographic methods to corrupt the machines once access has been acquired. Clearly the authors are very excited about the developments in cryptovirology, a relatively young field, that have taken place in the last five years. Their goal though is not to train hackers to break into systems, but rather to coach the reader on how to find vulnerabilities in these systems and then repair them. The subject of cryptovirology is fascinating, especially in the mathematics that is uses, and a thorough knowledge of its power will be required for meeting the challenges of twenty-first century network computing.
After a "motivational chapter" that it meant to shed insight on what it is like to be a hacker, this being done through a collection of short stories, the authors move on to giving a general overview of the field of cryptovirology in chapter 2. The reader gets his first dose of zero-knowledge interactive proofs (ZKIPs), which allow a prover to convince a verifier of a fact without revealing to it why the fact is true. The authors point out that viruses are vulnerable once found, since their rudimentary programming can be then studied and understood. This motivates the introduction of public key cryptography into the payload of the virus, and it is at this point that the field of cryptovirology is born.
Chapter 3 is more of a review of modular arithmetic, entropy generators, and pseudorandom number generators and can be skipped for those readers familiar with these. The authors emphasize the need for effective random number generators and in using multiple sources for entropy generation. They also introduce the very interesting concept of a `mix network', which allows two mutually distrusting parties to communicate securely and anonymously over a network. `Onion routing' is discussed as a method for implementing asynchronous mix networks. Mix networks can be used to hide the propagation history of a worm or virus.
In chapter 4, the authors discuss how to implement anonymous communication and how to launch a cryptotrojan attack that utilizes an anonymous communication channel. There are many applications of anonymous communication, one being E-money, and also, unfortunately, money laundering. The authors describe in fair detail how to conduct criminal operations with mix networks and anonymous money. This same technology though allows freedom of speech in geographical areas that are not sympathetic to it. Electronic voting, so controversial at the present time, is discussed as an activity that is very susceptible to the threat of stegotrojans or government violation of anonymity. Techniques for doing deniable password snatching using cryptovirology, and for countering it using zero-knowledge proofs, are also discussed.
Chapter 5 introduces techniques for preventing the reading of counters when a virus is propagating from one machine to another. Known as `cryptocounters', the authors discuss various techniques for constructing them, such as the ElGamal and Paillier public key cryptosystems.
Private information retrieval (PIR), which allows the secure and private theft of information, is discussed in chapter 6, wherein the authors present a few schemes for performing PIR. These schemes, unfortunately, allow the theft of information without revealing anything about the information sought and without revealing anything about what is taken. The authors also introduce a concept that they call `questionable encryptions', which are algorithms to produce valid encryptions or fake encryptions depending on the inputs. Related to question encryption, and also discussed in this chapter, are `deniable encryptions', which allow the sender to produce fake random choices that result in the true plaintext to be kept secret. Also discussed is the topic of `cryptographic computing', which allows computations with encrypted data without first having to decrypt it. The modular arithmetic used in this chapter is fascinating and well worth the read.
Chapter 7 is by far the most interesting of the entire book, and also the most disconcerting if its strategies are ever realized. The goal of the chapter is to find out to what extent a virus can be constructed whose removal will damage the host machine. This, in the author's opinion, would be a genuine `digital disease', and they discuss various scenarios for bringing it about, which are at present not realized, but could be in the near future. The approach discussed involves game theory, and the authors show how the payload of a virus can survive even after discovery of the virus. They give a very detailed algorithm on how to attack a brokerage firm, including the assumptions that must be satisfied by such an attack. The attack is mounted by deploying a distributed cryptovirus that tries to find three suitable host machines, and the attack consists of three phases, the first involving replication leading to the infection of the three machines, the second involving preparation for the attack, and third involving playing the two-player game. The host machines, to be acceptable for launching the attack, must either be "brokerage" machines, which have sensitive information available to the virus, or "reclusive" machines, which are machines that are not subjected to much scrutiny. The goal of the virus, according to the authors, is to give the malware purchasing power, and not direct monetary gain. The virus may then evolve over time to become a portfolio manager, and may even act as a surrogate for purchasing shares on behalf of the firm or client. Other possibilities for the virus are discussed, and the authors overview the security of the attack and its utility.
I did not read the rest of the chapters in the book, so I will omit their review.
Heaven's dark side.......2004-05-15
For some time now we have been taught that modern cryptography offers an elegant solution to a number of problems. Communicate securely? use a VPN; identify the author of a document? use a digital signature; securely encrypt e-mail? use PKI. But what if the very power behind these solutions can itself be [misinterpreted]? If such is the case, then encryption can be a curse, a digital signature an illusion and the heralded savior an unconquerable nemesis. This is the essence of what this book is about.
To be sure this is not easy reading. It is adult material, meaning that thinking is required. But it could not be otherwise, the material would not allow it. However the reader will be well rewarded for every morsel of math they endeavor to puzzle through. The realization of the potential dark side of modern cryptography is the first step in preparing to defend against it. This book provides that realization.
The reader may find the first few chapters to be an entertaining fictional account of some days in the life of a hacker. Indeed, the text reads beautifully as such. But here is a chilling thought - what if the events described were real?
Book Description
This unique book explains the basic issues of classical and modern cryptography, and provides a self contained essential mathematical background in number theory, abstract algebra, and probability—with surveys of relevant parts of complexity theory and other things. A user-friendly, down-to-earth tone presents concretely motivated introductions to these topics. More detailed chapter topics include simple ciphers; applying ideas from probability; substitutions, transpositions, permutations; modern symmetric ciphers; the integers; prime numbers; powers and roots modulo primes; powers and roots for composite moduli; weakly multiplicative functions; quadratic symbols, quadratic reciprocity; pseudoprimes; groups; sketches of protocols; rings, fields, polynomials; cyclotomic polynomials, primitive roots; pseudo-random number generators; proofs concerning pseudoprimality; factorization attacks finite fields; and elliptic curves. For personnel in computer security, system administration, and information systems.
Customer Reviews:
Essential book on the mathematics of cryptography.......2006-06-20
This wonderful book lies between the layman's approach of "The Code Book" and "Applied Cryptography: Protocols, Algorithms, and Source Code in C", which takes an algorithmic approach to cryptography but glosses over the mathematical details. It is great for people who already understand the use of various cryptographic algorithms as depicted in "The Code Book", but want to understand the underpinning mathematics before they implement cryptography in code. It is the best of the applied math books on the subject, since it manages to explain the mathematics behind cryptography without getting bogged down in proofs. If cryptographic algorithms and implementations are your business, all three books are essential reading.
This book is a college level mathematics text that does a pretty good job of explaining the mathematics involved without assuming a lot in the way of background, but a preliminary course in abstract algebra would certainly be helpful. If I have any criticism of the book it is that there is a scarcity of actual numerical examples versus the multitude of unsolved exercises left to the student. I would recommend this book to anyone interested in the mathematics of cryptography.
NOTE: A second edition of this book is due in February 2007. Preliminary information shows it to be 100 pages longer than this edition. Thus, if you have to buy the first edition now, you might want to get a used one and demand a lower price due to the limited lifespan this edition has.
Difficult to understand.......2006-05-06
I took this course at the U of Minn (where the author is a professor). He has a reputation of being a good professor and a good guy (and I have no reason to doubt it). Unfortunately, his book is very hard to understand. While packed chock full of information, it is written in a **very, very** dense style. It makes a lot of assumptions about your prior knowledge and there are few examples to illustrate the theory. While this may be OK for a grad student in math (or even a bright senior), it is definitely not sufficient for a non-math major and most undergrads.
Great buy!.......2003-04-27
Other than a few 1st edition errors and too small of an anwer key, the book is definitely worth the money. It has a very down-to-earth style which is great if you're using the book on your own like me. I'm using this book for the Siemman's Westinghouse Scholarship Competition, and I think it is a great book for anyone interested in Cryptology, whether they like math or not.
Actually 4.6.......2003-04-27
I like the book quite a bit because of the actual down-to-earth language Garrett uses. It is very nice since I'm using it on my own time. There some errors in the book, however. He also selects only about 25% of the questions to anwer in the key. He could show about 50% and give an explanation on how to find the answer. Other than that, there is nothing wrong with the book and those problems shouldn't keep you from buying it.
Excellent book on cryptology.......2003-04-16
Very good book. His explanation is very clear.
I recommand to anyone who wants to learn cryptology.
I think computer scientist will get the most benefits from
this book.
Book Description
- Cryptography is the most effective way to achieve data security and is essential to e-commerce activities such as online shopping, stock trading, and banking
- This invaluable introduction to the basics of encryption covers everything from the terminology used in the field to specific technologies to the pros and cons of different implementations
- Discusses specific technologies that incorporate cryptography in their design, such as authentication methods, wireless encryption, e-commerce, and smart cards
- Based entirely on real-world issues and situations, the material provides instructions for already available technologies that readers can put to work immediately
- Expert author Chey Cobb is retired from the NRO, where she held a Top Secret security clearance, instructed employees of the CIA and NSA on computer security and helped develop the computer security policies used by all U.S. intelligence agencies
Download Description
* Cryptography is the most effective way to achieve data security and is essential to e-commerce activities such as online shopping, stock trading, and banking
* This invaluable introduction to the basics of encryption covers everything from the terminology used in the field to specific technologies to the pros and cons of different implementations
* Discusses specific technologies that incorporate cryptography in their design, such as authentication methods, wireless encryption, e-commerce, and smart cards
* Based entirely on real-world issues and situations, the material provides instructions for already available technologies that readers can put to work immediately
* Expert author Chey Cobb is retired from the NRO, where she held a Top Secret security clearance, instructed employees of the CIA and NSA on computer security and helped develop the computer security policies used by all U.S. intelligence agencies
Customer Reviews:
Disappointing Read.......2006-04-22
This book lacks credibility. It gives a weak high level outline for crypto and has some very embarrassing inaccuracies when detail is attempted to be covered. It's also shockingly dated in places and very poorly written with disorganized statements. Save your money and visit some websites that would give you better general and specialized information and not cost you a bean. This book is not value for money.
Disappointing.......2005-12-05
Not a good book in many ways. Lots of slapdash comment, quite a few innacuracies and badly edited. Seems like it was rushed out to fill a gap in the market. I've worked in banks for years, and followed cyrypto development and written crypto policy, we bought this book to introduce the subject to some of our new guys, and we quickly fell out of favor with the content.
Save your dollars and buy something a little bit more credible!
Pretty Good Intro to Cryptography.......2005-09-30
I've stumbled across cryptography for about the past year, so recently I decided to go ahead and learn some basics (as I think the subject and InfoSec is really interesting). Most cryptography books out there are for the advanced and are mathematically rigorous. While I gladly welcome math, I needed an overview to bring me up to speed, prepping me for more intermediate (and eventually advanced) texts later.
I've never read a Dummies book dealing with computer technology before, because although they're written for absolute novices, the low-level writing style irritates me, usually takes too long to get to the "interesting stuff", and the "yippity-skippity!" attitude will eventually make me go seek a more advanced text. Basically, Dummies books "hold your hand", and if this is what you need, they're great! But if not, they can be rather slow for you (as for me).
However, Cryptography for Dummies is pretty good, aside from a few misses. By this being a Dummies book, the impression of this text being for complete neophytes is false - if you don't have any experience with basic computer science topics (e.g. binary, binary-to-decimal conversions, bits/bytes/words, etc.), the first couple chapters may be a little hard to understand, as the author assumes you at least know that stuff.
Aside from that, the author does a good job explaining the basic topics one needs to understand cryptography and its inner-workings. However, the author's writing style leaves much to be desired at times. At points, I found myself scratching my head, re-reading passages several times, trying to figure out what the author meant. At times when he should explain the nuances of something, he doesn't, leaving you to go, "HUH?" (A good example of this are the early parts where he talks about keys but doesn't explain what a key is or how they interact with other parts of a cryptographic system.)
There are other sections where the author leaves entire descriptions of things out, where you'll have to figure it out for yourself. Perhaps this is purposeful, so he won't get too far into the topic, as this book is basically an overview. Something else I noticed too is the vast amount of errors the book has! I'm not sure if Dummies has an 'Errata' section on its site.
While this book is by no means a complete text (probably not even a 1/3-complete text), overall, it's good for those who want an overview of the subject, and plan on venturing further, as I do.
Great intro into Cryptography.......2004-12-01
This book was excellent for getting you over that hill of understanding. If you don't have much back ground in cryptography or don't need to know the nitty-gritty details of how it all works then this is the book for you. The book is well indexed and fairly up to date. The only problem I found with this book is that sometimes it went back over some things already covered but, this is a minor issue. I used it extensively for doing an intro research paper on cryptography.
Good intro to cryptography.......2004-10-03
Cryptography is one of the most intimidating aspects of computer security, conjuring up, as it does, such concepts as hash functions and public-key infrastructures. For the average user who wants to know about cryptography without gaining the proficiency of a cryptographer, Cryptography for Dummies is the perfect introduction.
The book details the core elements of cryptography that the average user needs to understand, leaving the theoretical topics to more long-winded texts. Emphasis is put on simplicity and straightforwardness, with as little gibberish as possible. Screen shots and illustrations are used effectively without being condescending or insulting.
As the book progresses, the chapters plumb more detail. Those wishing just a quick introduction should stop after part one. For the more ambitious, sections on public-key infrastructures, secured sockets layer, authentication systems, and virtual private networks lie ahead.
Book Description
At last - the secrets of Bletchley Park's powerful codebreaking computers. This is a history of Colossus, the world's first fully-functioning electronic digital computer. Colossus was used during the Second World War at the Government Code and Cypher School at Bletchley Park, where it played an invaluable role cracking enemy codes. Until very recently, much about the Colossus machine was shrouded in secrecy, largely because the codes that were employed remained in use by the British security services until a short time ago. This book has only become possible due to the recent declassification in the US of wartime documents. With an introductory essay on cryptography and the history of code-breaking by Simon Singh, this book reveals the workings of Colossus and the extraordinary staff at Bletchley Park through personal accounts by those who lived and worked with the computer. Among them is the testimony of Thomas Flowers, who was the architect of Colossus and whose personal account, written shortly before he died, is published here for the first time. Other essays consider the historical importance of this remarkable machine, and its impact on the generations of computing technology that followed.
Customer Reviews:
Rewriting the history of computing with Colossus.......2007-09-17
What if I told you that a secret project conducted more than 60 years ago held the true origins of the modern computing era? And that the country behind this project did such a good job erasing its tracks that it did itself a disservice? And that many of the things invented during this project would only be realized with modern-day PCs?
This book is a wonderful collection of first-person accounts and you get to see the enormity of the task and exactly how critical this effort was towards winning the war. If you got excited about crypto stuff in the DaVinci Code then you will have lots of hours of fun trying to work through the examples the authors provide.
Good General History.......2006-11-10
This provides a good general history of the breaking of the German Lorenz and (to a lesser extent) Siemens cipher teletypes, focusing mostly on the British methods using the Heath Robinson and Colossus tabulating machines driven by punched tapes. The breaking of these differed from the breaking of the Enigma machines in that the methods were probabilistic and statistical rather than the logical operations of the Turing and Welchman electromechanical Bombes, so that the mathematics (relegated to appendices) are very different. The appendices include the Swedish mathematician Arne Burling's breaking of the Siemens machine on leased cables from Norway through Sweden.
For understanding the mathematics, I prefer Harvey Cragon's "From Fish to Colossus" or Frank Carter's pamphlets sold by Bletchley Park, which seem to be currently unavailable, and Cragon includes descriptions (and schematics) of much of the circuitry of the Colossi. It is interesting to read in Copeland's book descriptions by many of those who actually made the breakthroughs.
Colossus: The Secrets of Bletchley Park's Code Breaking Computers.......2006-11-06
This book is a copendium of histories from the people who were at Bletchley Park who actually did the code breaking. I found their stories facinating. There is also some moderately technical information that describes how the several code breaking machines worked. This is the first description that I have seen of the effort to break the codes associated with the German teletytpe system. I found the book facinating.
Excellent Ground Breaking Book.......2006-07-12
The story of the Bletchley Park code breaking efforts towards the German Enigma machine are well known. (If you are not familar the best book on the Enigma is:The German Enigma Cipher Machine: Beginnings, Success, and Ultimate Failure - ISBN 1-58053-996-3) Down through the years there have been only casual references to the Colossus machine that was used on the more sophisticated German coding machines.
At last enough material has been declassified to enable the story to be told. Dr. Copeland, Director of the Turing Archive for the History of Computing and author of some very good books on Alan Turing, has collected an amazing amount of information on Colossus. This has come from various sources, primarily in the form of short essays written by people who worked on or with Colossus during ther war.
This is an important book covering not only a little explored aspect of World War II but also an important step in the development of electronic computers. It also talks about how Colossus was held secret for so long that the important developments which it entailed might have helped Britain retain greater prosperity after the war.
An excellent, ground breaking book, highly recommended.
Average customer rating:
- ab initio approach to viruses
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Computer Viruses: from theory to applications (Collection IRIS)
Éric Filiol
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The Art of Computer Virus Research and Defense (Symantec Press)
ASIN: 2287239391 |
Book Description
This book deals with computer viruses envisaged from three different points of view, namely the theoretical fundamentals of computer virology, algorithmic and practical aspects of viruses and their potential applications to various areas. The theoretical formalization by means of Turing machines, self-reproducing automata and recursive functions enable a precise and exhaustive description of the different types of malware. It follows that the main stakes of computer defense and antiviral fighting are easily highlighted. Detailed analysis of the source code for representative members of each virus/worm family allows the reader to grasp the basic algorithmic aspects involved in self-reproducing codes. The C programming language has been systematically used for a better understanding of the considered codes.
Customer Reviews:
ab initio approach to viruses.......2006-01-25
Filiol takes an ab initio approach to computer viruses. He gives a description rooted in the use of a Turing machine. But also using ideas from cellular automata research. The idea is to give a rigorous understanding of viruses, that is independent of any given hardware or software. A key theme is that the code be somehow able to reproduce.
But the book is not just for a theorist. He also directs it towards the user who has to devise an antivirus detector. So source code for several different types of viruses are given (in C). This lets you get a hands-on approach to tackling the problem. Of course, not all possible viruses are covered. This may be a theoretical impossibility. But enough examples are given that you can confidently understanding much that is out there.
Amazon.com's Best of 2001
If the National Security Agency (NSA) had wanted to make sure that strong encryption would reach the masses, it couldn't have done much better than to tell the cranky geniuses of the world not to do it. Author Steven Levy, deservedly famous for his enlightening Hackers, tells the story of the cypherpunks, their foes, and their allies in Crypto: How the Code Rebels Beat the Government. From the determined research of Whitfield Diffie and Marty Hellman, in the face of the NSA's decades-old security lock, to the commercial world's turn-of-the-century embrace of encrypted e-commerce, Levy finds drama and intellectual challenge everywhere he looks. Although he writes, "Behind every great cryptographer, it seems, there is a driving pathology," his respect for the mathematicians and programmers who spearheaded public key encryption as the solution to Information Age privacy invasion shines throughout. Even the governmental bad guys are presented more as hapless control fetishists who lack the prescience to see the inevitability of strong encryption as more than a conspiracy of evil.
Each cryptological advance that was made outside the confines of the NSA's Fort Meade complex was met with increasing legislative and judicial resistance. Levy's storytelling acumen tugs the reader along through mathematical and legal hassles that would stop most narratives in their tracks--his words make even the depressingly silly Clipper chip fiasco vibrant. Hardcore privacy nerds will value Crypto as a review of 30 years of wrangling; those readers with less familiarity with the subject will find it a terrific and well-documented launching pad for further research. From notables like Phil Zimmerman to obscure but important figures like James Ellis, Crypto dishes the dirt on folks who know how to keep a secret. --Rob Lightner
Book Description
If you've ever made a secure purchase with your credit card over the Internet, then you have seen cryptography, or "crypto," in action. From Steven Levy-the author who made "hackers" a household word-comes this account of a revolution that is already affecting every citizen in the twenty-first century. Crypto tells the inside story of how a group of "crypto rebels"-nerds and visionaries turned freedom fighters-teamed up with corporate interests to beat Big Brother and ensure our privacy on the Internet. Levy's history of one of the most controversial and important topics of the digital age reads like the best futuristic fiction.
"Gripping and illuminating." (The Wall Street Journal)
Customer Reviews:
my question answered.......2007-03-20
The computer age is truly here. Our money, identity and privacy are truly exposed. Having heard about the National Security Agency's battle to prevent the public use of secure cryptography, I really wanted to know if I could trust our government to let me have secure privacy.
History is an excellent teacher. You just have to get the facts and judge for yourself. This book does just that. It tells it's story in an unbiased manner, truly believable and logical.
I have found my answer. Read it and find yours.
Crypto for the Common Man - A Great Intro.......2006-10-26
Beside Hackers, Crypto is arguably Steven Levy's strongest work. Like Hackers, Levy captures an intimate sense of detail about the characters who fought to bring strong cryptography to the public. Yet, at the same time, he manages to put together a more coherent, linear history than he achieved with Hackers.
In the end, I failed to sense the tension that Levy claims - certainly this was a David vs. Goliath fight, against such formidable and shadowy opponents as the NSA, however he never really establishes a sense of "Oh, Jeez! What if they stop the crypto heroes?" I never really felt like the outcome was in question - but again, that's light criticism when weighed against the strength of the book.
Crypto does a great job conveying a very technically difficult subject - cryptography - which is, of course, one of the skills that cements Levy among the best popular technology writers of our generation. Strongly recommended for anyone interested in technology in general - and, although probably a little technically light for those closer to the subject, it remains a great way to get closer to the people that made it happen.
Some parts Interesting, some parts boring.......2006-07-30
Now days, communications are more secure than ever thanks to the pubic key crytographic system and the work of those people involve in this story. As you will see, the more bits a key has, most difficult is to break the code, since to factorize a big prime number is almost impossible. Well, that is what we currently know. Although in this book you have this history, I think the author put too much detail in things we are just going to forget soon, making the book a little boring.
EXCELLENT and MOVING book about cryptography stars.......2005-08-12
This author made a boring subject come alive! In addition, the writing actually made some the people interesting who focused mostly or solely on cryptography...ordinarily I would ignore single focus persons. But this book talked about their successes in a succint way that interested me.
This is a GREAT author. I read his book about the Macintosh and that is why I purchased this book. I am adding AES encryption to a Windows CE device...so cryptography interests me. I also purchased Hackers and will read it later.
Well-researched account.......2005-05-24
Light-hearted by nature, Steven Levy gives everything the proper treatment in an often amusing way without being irreverent, and he becomes serious where warranted.
This book presents a balanced perspective from both sides: privacy advocates who do not necessarily trust the government, and government authorities terrified of losing their precious wiretaps and other snooping capabilities. The actions of a few self-righteous, overzealous mavericks on both sides are recounted.
Examples of successful U.S. government eavesdropping are mentioned; for instance, it was monitoring that revealed that the Libyans were the bombers of Pan Am flight 103. There is example after example of how the antiquated, rigid NSA position that "crypto is munitions" stifled the ascendant American software industry in the 1990's by restricting exports, giving foreign competitors the edge, while the rest of the world already had strong crypto anyway! Asinine inconsistencies in the old export restrictions are cited. The players of the NSA, NIST, and Congress are named and events, from assembly bills to telling conversations, are recounted. I think most crypto enthusiasts will find this recap informative. It certainly filled in a lot of gaps for me!
The book does not pretend to be a primer on cryptography. Levy does his usual admirable job of reaching out to the masses with lay explanations and clever analogies, but this being specialized math, it will at times go over the heads of some readers. Levy has a good sense of how far to take a technical explanation before dropping it; he doesn't go around the bend. Historical cryptographic systems recounted in David Kahn's tome "The Codebreakers" are now passe, not just because computers do it faster, but also due to relatively recent mathematical discoveries. The chronology of those discoveries is told along with the human stories behind them --of those who yearned to understand the art of secret writing and came to realize that it boils down to hard adversarial mathematics.
The human story throughout is one of unassuming, unlikely geniuses whose discoveries got no immediate fanfare, rather taking decades to catch on. Today (ironically now that the patents have expired) those discoveries are in use every day by most people using the Internet, a cellular phone, or any other wireless device.
The book is at times dull. To me, the accounts of legislative machinations were slow-going but I don't see how they could be made more interesting.
Jim Bidzos is finally vindicated as a real hero of the crypto revolution (after being portrayed in a bad light in a book on PGP). Diffie/Hellman/Merkle, the Cypherpunks, anonymous remailers, Julf Helsingius and Penet, David Chaum and digital cash protocols, court decisions, the Clipper chip --it's all here.
Did government spooks discover public key crypto first, in secret? The book ends with the interesting and hitherto unknown story of James H. Ellis of the General Communications HQ, the British cousin of the NSA.
An index, a small glossary, and an appendix of references are included. Well done!
Customer Reviews:
A loud figure in a quiet business.......2004-08-09
A biography of Herbert Yardley is welcome. David Kahn has done a remarkable job unearthing many aspects of the life of an obscure figure in American history. Kahn is a fine, readable writer, in this book no less than in prior ones. I very much enjoyed his Seizing the Enigma (1991).
My lack of enthusiasm for this book centers on Yardley. During the 1920s, Yardley enjoyed a comfy salary heading a U.S. government cipher office in New York, where he might laze for an hour a day. In contrast, William F. Friedman, working for the Army, wrote about cryptanalysis, studied statistics, and evaluated the usefulness of tabulating machines, forerunners of computers. When the Hoover Administration reduced funding to his office, Yardley wrote a book, melodramatically called the American Black Chamber, which revealed the world of coded communications and U.S. efforts to read foreign communications. In so doing, he sold secrets to which he was privvy. Thereafter, he went Hollywood, contributing to screen plays. During 1938-39, he was employed by China to work on Japanese communications; his service was uninspired. Because Yardley had proven to be indiscreet, the U.S. did not make use of him during World War II, during which code-breaking was an important element in Anglo-American success. In 1957, Yardley published his second best-selling book, this one on playing poker. Not many authors write one popular book, let alone two.
Kahn speculates that Friedman envied Yardley's success with women. No evidence that this would be the basis for Friedman's dislike of Yardley is provided and it seems unlikely. In any event, Friedman and many others within the British and U.S. intelligence agencies rendered extraordinary, educated, hardworking service in the years leading up to and beyond the Second World War. Friedman would be the much more important figure for history.
Kahn refers to Yardley's "immortal legacy" of introducing codebreaking in the U.S. Codebreaking would have come to the U.S. regardless of the coincidental early participation by Yardley. By his writings, Yardley may be justly appreciated for contributing to popular culture. This book persuades me that Yardley's service to his nation was minor and thoroughly self-serving.
Because of particular interests, I happen to be glad to have read this book. It is well-written, well-researched, and pleasantly concise.
A Forgotten Intelligence Innovator.......2004-04-15
Despite its current reputation, there were times when American intelligence (meaning spying) was an unalloyed success. For many, the most interesting part of the spy business is signals intelligence, tuning into or breaking into foreign messages and decoding them. There has been signals intelligence of some sort ever since there has been international conflict, but the field took off when messages could be transmitted wirelessly. Anyone could pick up the signal, so the trick was to encode it; the counter-trick was to crack the code. Cryptographers and other spies already know and respect the name of Herbert O. Yardley. He isn't well known by others, but almost fifty years after his death, he has gotten a full, instructive biography, _The Reader of Gentleman's Mail: Herbert O. Yardley and the Birth of American Codebreaking_ (Yale University Press) by David Kahn. Kahn is the perfect teller of this tale, having written both articles for scholarly journals as well as popular books about intelligence matters. There is not a great deal of detail about the procedures of decryption, which are described only generally, but there is a unique American life here. According to Kahn, Yardley better than anyone foresaw how important cracking signals could be to American intelligence. He created the first permanent agency to intercept messages and break them. He was "the most colorful and controversial figure in American intelligence," and his controversial actions are fully included here.
Yardley came to Washington DC in 1914, working as a telegrapher in the State Department. He was fascinated by the messages that came in and out, and determined that he would give his life to cryptography. His efforts within the Army Signal Corp were effective, but more important even than the wartime accomplishments was that Yardley convinced the Army and State Department to continue signal intelligence after Armistice Day. He believed that the stream of international communications could indicate the attitudes and plans of nations who were our friends as well as our foes. He was right; his work ensured that America knew what the aims of the Japanese were at the arms limitation talks in 1921, saving the government millions of dollars and buying some years of peace. Those who thought that "Gentlemen do not read each other's mail" eventually closed his bureau down. Yardley was, at different times in his life, to make up cryptogram puzzles for magazines, to go into the invisible ink business, to write novels, to write screenplays for Hollywood, to run a restaurant, and to attempt commercial orange-juice distillation, as well as to become decoder-for-hire for Canada and China. He made a hit with his first book in 1931, The American Black Chamber, which caused immediate furor, about his government decryptions. He showed what his bureau had done, and the reading public was very much interested. He was accused of treason, but Kahn shows that Yardley was merely trying to make big money, at which he never was very successful. It was his main character flaw: "Yardley was a rotter, not a traitor."
One year before his death, Yardley published _The Education of a Poker Player_, full of anecdotes about poker games in which he had played as well as practical advice about how to win. It is regarded as a classic, and is still in print and is admired by serious gamblers and penny ante basement players. It was a good way for Yardley to bow off the world's stage, but is not his lasting monument. When it came time to start busting codes again as World War II loomed, no one had to be convinced that cryptanalysts were good sources of power. Yardley, the first American governmental cryptographer, had done his part to make America stronger through signal intelligence. He was an important and flawed figure who deserves more recognition; he has, surprisingly, had no biography written before, and Kahn's detailed and readable book will always be the definitive one on the subject.
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