User:صمیم محمدی

Subject Matter The material in this book is organized into four broad categories: • Cryptographic algorithms: This is the study of techniques for ensuring the secrecy and/or authenticity of information. The three main areas of study in this category are (1) symmetric encryption, (2) asymmetric encryption, and (3) cryptographic hash functions, with the related topics of message authentication codes and digital signatures. • Mutual trust: This is the study of techniques and algorithms for providing mutual trust in two main areas. First, key management and distribution deals with establishing trust in the encryption keys used between two communicating entities. Second, user authentication deals with establishing trust in the identity of a communicating partner. • Network security: This area covers the use of cryptographic algorithms in network protocols and network applications. • Computer security: In this book, we use this term to refer to the security of computers against intruders (e.g., hackers) and malicious software (e.g., viruses). Typically, the computer to be secured is attached to a network, and the bulk of the threats arise from the network. The first two parts of the book deal with two distinct cryptographic approaches: symmetric cryptographic algorithms and public-key, or asymmetric, cryptographic algorithms. Symmetric algorithms make use of a single key shared by two parties. Public-key algorithms make use of two keys: a private key known only to one party and a public key available to other parties. Topic Ordering This book covers a lot of material. For the instructor or reader who wishes a shorter treatment, there are a number of opportunities. To thoroughly cover the material in the first three parts, the chapters should be read in sequence. With the exception of the Advanced Encryption Standard (AES), none of the material in Part One requires any special mathematical background. To understand AES, it is necessary to have some understanding of finite fields. In turn, an understanding of finite fields requires a basic background in prime numbers and modular arithmetic. Accordingly, Chapter 4 covers all of these mathematical preliminaries just prior to their use in Chapter 5 on AES. Thus, if Chapter 5 is skipped, it is safe to skip Chapter 4 as well. Chapter 2 introduces some concepts that are useful in later chapters of Part One. However, for the reader whose sole interest is contemporary cryptography, this chapter can be quickly skimmed. The two most important symmetric cryptographic algorithms are DES and AES, which are covered in Chapters 3 and 5, respectively.