Cryptography

Cryptography includes techniques for conducting secure communications in the presence of third parties also referred to as adversaries.

More generally, it is about constructing and analyzing protocols that overcome the influence of adversaries and which are related to various aspects in information security such as data confidentiality, integrity, authentication, and non-repudiation.

Modern cryptography intersects the disciplines of mathematics, computer science, and electrical engineering.  Applications of cryptography include ATM cards, computer passwords, and electronic commerce.

Links to Cryptography and Privacy Related Sites

There is a lot published on the web about cryptography. We provide the links below as an introduction. Please let us know which sites that you think are great were left out and if you think any of the included sites should have been left out.

General

• Wikipedia is a great place to begin learning about any subject.
• Handbook of Applied Cryptography is a downloadable 816 page book.
• An Overview of Cryptography Defines some of the terms and concepts behind basic cryptographic methods, and offers a way to compare the myriad cryptographic schemes in use today. It also provides some real examples of cryptography in use today.
• What is steganography and how does it differ from cryptography?
• Cryptography “What follows is a list of freely available crypto systems, with comments based on my limited reading in books and on the net. I am not an expert in cryptography, and the following comments are therefor not to be taken as anything but an introductory words on the subject.”
• The Cryptography Resource Guide “To help learn more about the field of cryptography and its uses, here are some information and resources on related fields.”
• Cryptography FAQ
• A more concise, up to date Cryptography FAQ
• Privacy Resources, by Marcus P. Zillman for monitoring privacy resources and sites on the Internet.
• 75+ free tools to protect your privacy online, by Paul Bischoff
• Online Encryption Information Guide.
• Encryption Learning Center.

Algorithms and Libraries

• Cryptographic Algorithms and Protocols from Secure Programming for Linux and Unix HOWTO.
• Standard Cryptographic Algorithm Naming
• Security Testing and Metrics (NIST).
• Cryptographic Libraries Source Available Cryptographic Libraries.
• Cryptographic Libraries and Source Code This site also has other security tools.

Commercial Cryptography

• BarcodesInc Cryptography resources
• thawte SSL Certificates and more.
• Why Cryptography is Harder than It Looks
• VeriSign