[.ca] Cryptography: Theory and Practice, Third Edition (ISBN 1584885084)

From 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.

Second edition is disappointing.:
There is almost no difference between the first and second edition, regarding important security protocols. Mostly, key agreement protocol chapter is deleted (We have to wait for a second volume for this. But we don't know when the second volume will come out to the market-maybe 10 years from now...). Too many errors in the book. Too disappointed...

Very good book! I have really enjoyed it!:
The philosophy underlying the previous edition stays the same. The presentation of concepts is rigorous but neither difficult nor trivial, suitable for readers with basic notions of linear algebra. Moreover, new material has been added. Chapter 3, which deals with block ciphers and linear and differential cryptoanalysis, is very well-written. This is the best presentation of such a subject in few pages I have seen until now. Chapters 4, 5, 6 and 7 have been significantly updated and expanded with concepts and techniques that are fundamental in order to understand current researches and state of knowledge in Cryptography (e.g., random oracle model, semantic security, new attacks against public key cryptosystems, an in-depth introduction to elliptic curve ...). Compared to the previous edition, more emphasys has been given in some parts to security proofs (e.g, chapter 4), and several new exercises have been proposed at the end of each chapter. Other readers have pointed out that there are some typos (the author has made available an errata list on his home page) but I think that the value of the book is not reduced in any way. In my opinion it is a great book for people who want to be introduced to problems, ideas, and techniques used in Cryptography.

Reasonable but overpriced book:
This is the textbook for an undergraduate math course in cryptography in my school, so it was forced on me. The author does a good job introducing the theory and background math, but I would say there are not enough examples worked out to understand how it is used. For instance, Chapter 2 on information theory and entropy was difficult for me and the treatment in the book was too abstract, with just one example cryptosystem worked out. Other than that, it is pretty good, and some sections are particularly well-written (eg on block ciphers, AES, etc). Only 3 stars since it's much too expensive!(considering this is only volume 1 <2 is in the works, if not completed yet> - what a rip-off scheme.)

Fantastic Book on Cryptography:
This book is well suited for software developers, students, and research scientists alike. The first edition has proven to be an invaluable source of information on cryptology. The second edition covers a subset of the material from the first edition. However, the text has been revised, expanded, and new material has been added that covers more recent results in the field. A forthcomming companion book has been promised that will cover the remaining material (e.g., zero-knowledge proof systems). Readers that are interested in combinatorics should also consider picking up a copy of "Combinatorial Algorithms: Generation, Enumeration, and Search" by Stinson and Kreher.

Could be a great book .... but it falls short:
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.