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Applied Cryptography: Protocols, Algorithms, and Source Code in C, Second Edition
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Author: Bruce Schneier
List Price: $60.00
Our Price: Click to see the latest and low price
ISBN: 0471117099
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons (18 October, 1995)
Edition: Paperback
Sales Rank: 8,367
Average Customer Rating: 4.59 out of 5
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Customer ReviewsRating: 1 out of 5
A tour of algorithms by an outsider
If Bruce Schneier has acquired a habit, it is the ability to take the same old material and rehash it into different books, year after year. My guess is that, next year, he'll use another slightly different angle and try to sell you the same basic information. What you need to do, as a consumer, is step back and see this book for what it is: supplemental income and marketing for Bruce Schneier. Years ago, Bruce was laid off from AT&T Bell Labs. Since then, Bruce has been using rubes like you to augment his salary. Let's face it; if Bruce were a Ken Thompson or a Claude Shannon, he'd probably still have his job at Bell Labs. But he isn't and he doesn't. Instead he wrote Applied Cryptography and touted himself as an expert. The problem is that most people believed him. Not many people actually know an active cryptographer who can dispel fact from fiction. Applied Cryptography is just a tourists look at algorithms whose mathematical foundations, and use, are explained more effectively by other authors. Applied Cryptography may have been there first, but the industry has moved forward. Better books currently exist that are more rigorous, not to mention more lucid. This is strictly a "shelfware" book that you'd keep at your desk to impress your coworker's with, nothing more. Recently I spoke with a PhD, from Brown, who performed decades of research in number theory. He recommended "Cryptography in C and C++," by Michael Welschenbach. He also said "I don't know why people think Applied Cryptography is such a good book. He [Schneier] doesn't seem to understand the mathematics very well." Pick up Applied Cryptography sometime and compare it side-by-side with Welschenbach's book. You'll see what that PhD was talking about. What I find truly onerous about his books is the condescending tone that Schneier adopts when addressing the reader. It's if he's saying "I am so much more elite than you, I can't even begin to tell you." The truth is that Bruce Schneier is a lot of style without much substance. What he lacks in ability he makes up for with moxie. Having lived in Minneapolis, I'm more than familiar with the type of yuppie pretenders that live on Hennepin Avenue with their nose piercings and their tattoos. Bruce, that ponytail doesn't fool anybody. You're just another suit from the midwest with something to sell. Freakin' cake eaters...
Rating: 5 out of 5
Very well done
Excellent introduction and explanation for both novice and professional cryptographers. Easy read with very detailed explanation. I Highly Recommend both this and Handbook of Applied Cryptography (for some of the mathematical algorithms) if you are planning on implementing your own cryptographic library.
Rating: 5 out of 5
Definite Book for Professionals and also Newbies
Bruce Scheier clear writing makes understandable the hard issues very well. If you want to know that what cryptography has been used and also can be used for real life. Like digital money, authentication systems , secret sharing etc...
This is not a theoric math book it explains the spirit of cryptography but and its usage.After reading it I recommend that get a mathematical oriented cryptography book like "Introduction to Cryptography with Coding Theory
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