Cryptography

Cryptography is an interdisciplinary subject, drawing from several fields. Older forms of cryptography were chiefly concerned with patterns in language. More recently, the emphasis has shifted, and cryptography makes extensive use of mathematics, particularly discrete mathematics, including topics from number theory, information theory, computational complexity, statistics and combinatorics. Cryptography is also considered a branch of engineering, but it is considered to be an unusual one as it deals with active, intelligent and malevolent opposition (see cryptographic engineering and security engineering). Cryptography is a tool used within computer and network security.

References

• James Gannon, Stealing Secrets, Telling Lies: How Spies and Codebreakers Helped Shape the Twentieth Century, Washington, D.C., Brassey's, 2001, ISBN 1-57488-367-4.
• David Kahn, The Codebreakers, 1967, ISBN 0684831309.
• A. J. Menezes, P. C. van Oorschot, and S. A. Vanstone, Handbook of Applied Cryptography ISBN 0849385237 http://cacr.math.uwaterloo.ca/hac/.
• Bruce Schneier, Applied Cryptography, 2nd edition, Wiley, 1996, ISBN 0471117099.