| This book is about standards, cryptography, and standards for cryptography. It has been written in the hope that it will
serve a number of purposes, including the following.
◗ Perhaps most importantly, to provide a general introduction
to standardized cryptography for the user of this technology (i.e., a designer or developer who wishes to
build cryptographic methods into a system);
◗ To provide a guide to cryptography, based around the
main standards, for students and others wishing to understand what services cryptography can provide.
It does not, however, try to describe how cryptography is used in specific application areas,
nor does it cover standards for the use of cryptography in particular application domains.
These issues are sufficiently large to require a book or books to themselves.
This book derives to a large extent from our joint experience in teaching a course on security standards as part of the Royal
Holloway M.Sc. in information security. Over the 12 years during which the course has been run, the collection of cryptographic
standards has grown hugely, and we have, within this text, attempted to provide a historical perspective for the development
of cryptographic standards.
We have attempted to make this book accessible to the general reader, although it is not really designed for the reader completely
unfamiliar with cryptography and its possible applications. We have certainly minimized the mathematical content
of the material, and later in this introduction we provide a basic introduction to the mathematical concepts that we could not
escape. However the reader is encouraged to get started on the book and only refer to the mathematical introduction if concepts
arise with which they are not familiar. |
