Cryptography : An Introduction

Learning about cryptography requires examining fundamental issues about information security. Questions abound and answering them requires an understanding of basic cryptography. This book, written by Russian cryptographers, explains those basics. Chapters are independent and can be read in any order. The introduction gives a general description of all the main notions of modern cryptography: a cipher, a key, security, an electronic digital signature, a cryptographic protocol, etc. Other chapters delve more deeply into this material. This text should be suitable for advanced high school students and undergraduates studying information security. It should also be appropriate for a general mathematical audience interested in cryptography.